The Gun

By: C. J. Chivers

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

It is the world's most widely recognized weapon, the most profuse tool for killing ever made. More than 50 national armies carry the automatic Kalashnikov, as do an array of police, intelligence, and security agencies all over the world. In this tour de force, prizewinning New York Times reporter C. J. Chivers traces the invention of the assault rifle, following the miniaturization of rapid-fire arms from the American Civil War, through World War I and Vietnam, to present-day Afghanistan, when Kalashnikovs and their knockoffs number as many as 100 million, one for every 70 persons on earth.

It is the weapon of state repression, as well as revolution, civil war, genocide, drug wars, and religious wars; and it is the arms of terrorists, guerrillas, boy soldiers, and thugs. It was the weapon used to crush the uprising in Hungary in 1956. American Marines discovered in Vietnam that the weapon in the hands of the enemy was superior to their M16s. Fidel Castro amassed them. Yasir Arafat procured them for the P.L.O. A Kalashnikov was used to assassinate Anwar Sadat. As Osama bin Laden told the world that "the winds of faith and change have blown," a Kalashnikov was by his side. Pulled from a hole, Saddam Hussein had two Kalashnikovs.

It is the world's most widely recognized weapon - cheap, easy to conceal, durable, deadly. But where did it come from? And what does it mean? Chivers, using a host of exclusive sources and declassified documents in the east and west, as well as interviews with and the personal accounts of insurgents, terrorists, child soldiers, and conventional grunts, reconstructs through the Kalashnikov the evolution of modern war. Along the way, he documents the experience and folly of war and challenges both the enduring Soviet propaganda surrounding the AK-47 and many of its myths.

©2010 C.J. Chivers (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Eye-opening.... An entertaining work that combines technical details, biographies, political maneuvering and insightful military history." ( Kirkus)

absolute must

must read for Cold War history nerds like me and those interested in history. This book is much more then a history of a gun hit sheds light into the inner workings of the Soviet system, life under Stalin.

Good but not great

The material is awesome but the length and the dryness of the narration had my mind wandering around a bit. Still a decent read and great history of the guns that helped shape the modern world.

outstanding historical account, beautifully writte

this was an exceptional work of research and lyrically written. comprehensive engaging, and deeply informative.

The Gun-C.J.Chivers

Well written and insightful. I don't believe the AK 47 was souly the work of the Russion Sargent who's name it bears, but the book is good reading anyway. By 1943 the German army had developed and were using a weapon that bears a suspicious (and down right striking resemblence) to the AK. I have fired this gun and it is everything advertised-simple-reliable-cheap to produce-readily available-and a killing machine.

Scattered

Downloaded this after reading a rave review in a news magazine. While some parts are interesting, including the history and rivalries in the development of machine guns, I found the narrative a bit scattershot (no pun intended) and not all that captivating. Will probably only appeal to those with a real interest in firearms.

Informative, half gun, half battlefield history.

Great info on machine guns leading to the ak. Great info on the first AR. Kind of dry material and lots of battlefield history.

A solid history of the machine gun and AK

What this book does REALLY well is tells the story of the history of the automatic weapon in a military context - from Richard J Gatling's Gatling gun, through Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-pattern of rifles. It's packed full of mechanical and strategic detail I've never known about, and generally was exceedingly enjoyable.

My one criticism is that the book falls into the same trap that most other firearms histories tend to fall into, in that it has nothing good to say about the AR-15/M16 and the debacle that was the US Army's first deployment of the rifle. While certainly a good chunk of the details shared by the book are authentic, it makes the singularly bold claim that Project AGILE was solely focused on the AR-15's role in jungle warfare - a gross reduction of the Project's overall objectives. It certainly reduces the credibility of the claims made about the M16.

CJ Chivers will have much to reveal to us...

I am very grateful to CJ Chivers for recently removing himself from the blind hazard of war. Although almost no one is better equipped to deal with hazard, he has seen fit to return from "the ranks of death" to focus his prodigious skills on we know not what. This is a rare talent which has been gifted us. I wonder what this surprising man will have in store for us. Whatever it is, I an certain that, like "The Gun", it will be a great deal more than the sum of its parts.

A Marathon Work Well Worth Absorbing

Would you consider the audio edition of The Gun to be better than the print version?

Cannot compare; never read the ink on paper version.

What did you like best about this story?

The personal anecdotes about the principle characters were nice and made the book's value far greater than if it were just a history of mechanical devices. Far far overshadowing the basic histories of the fully automatic weapons was Chivers' stark revelation of the corruption around the creation and implementation of the M-16 rifle and the fact that so many men died or suffered catastrophic life-changing injuries and PTSD because of the well-known defects that were buried under marketing hype and self-protective lies by manufacturers and military officers, alike. Chivers' revealing that most M-16's in the early years of the Vietnam extravaganza were so flawed and so unreliable that many of our troops demanded to use the heavier/older M-14 or they actually picked-up the fearsome weapon of the enemy (the AK-47.) OUR own troops were so terrified of their own weapons' flaws that they ended-up using the enemy's own weapons because they wouldn't jam and make them sitting ducks in firefights. If more people knew about this travesty and that so many of our young men died because of business decisions, many things about the way today's "wars" are conducted would be scrutinized and made subject to accountability than we see now.

What does Michael Prichard bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His pace and use of foreign accents made his reading amplify the mere words the author wrote.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

"Genius So Efficiently Applied to Causing Tragedy"

Any additional comments?

The author did excellent work in crafting a book that stands alone as a documentary to the development of weapons which have changed our world...for the worse, unfortunately. Yet, we need to know. Also I love the quote; "Traditions and bad ideas die more slowly than do men" because it is so true and so evident almost everywhere one looks.

Detailed and Informative

I learned so much about the history behind the early Gatling and maxim guns and then into the detailed and sordid history of the M16 and AK lines.

There was so much context and thorough examination that I now understand why the AK is the de facto choice for many armies, revolutionaries and terrorists.

Highly recommend!