Revolver

Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter that Changed America

De: Jim Rasenberger

Narrado por: Jacques Roy

A “gripping,” (Booklist) “clear-eyed, and honest” (The New York Times Book Review) biography of Samuel Colt—the inventor of the legendary Colt revolver (a.k.a. six-shooter)—which changed the US forever, triggering the industrial revolution and the settlement of the American West.

Patented in 1836, the Colt pistol with its revolving cylinder was the first practical firearm that could shoot more than one bullet without reloading. For many reasons, Colt’s gun had a profound effect on American history. Its most immediate impact was on the expansionism of the American west, where white emigrants and US soldiers came to depend on it, and where Native Americans came to dread it. The six-shooter became the iconic weapon of gun-slingers, outlaws, and cowboys—some willing to pay $500 out west for a gun that sold for $25 back east.

In making the revolver, Colt also changed American manufacturing—his factory revolutionized industry in the United States. Ultimately, Colt and his gun-making brought together the two most significant forces of change before the Civil War—the industrial revolution in the east, Manifest Destiny in the west.

“Written with a journalist’s sense of color and a historian’s eye for the revealing detail” (The Wall Street Journal), Revolver brings the brazenly ambitious and profoundly innovative industrialist and leader Samuel Colt to vivid life. In the space of his forty-seven years, he seemingly lived five lives: he traveled, womanized, drank prodigiously, smuggled guns to Russia, bribed politicians, and supplied the Union Army with the guns they needed to win the Civil War. Colt lived during an age of promise and progress, but also of slavery, corruption, and unbridled greed, and he not only helped to create this America, he completely embodied it. By the time he died in 1862 in Hartford, Connecticut, he was one of the most famous men in nation, and one of the richest.

“Offering a panoramic view of American culture during Colt’s life” (LA Review of Books) Revolver is a “rollicking and informative account [that] will delight American history buffs” (Publishers Weekly).

the Colt weapons which brought many too massacre

I now realized Sam Colt a Confederate sympathizer, a traitor of fact, and a devious business man

How a revolver changed the world.

Anyone interested in 19th Century US history will love this book. Rasenberger weaves the story of how Colt’s revolver revolutionized manufacturing with the ease and skill of William Manchester and David McCullough. An immensely informative and enjoyable read.

fun and interesting!

so many interesting aspects to this! It touches on Colts family, and many moving parts of history at the time

Would be better with out the virtue signaling

I enjoyed the book alright, but the author makes a point to morally wag his finger at the past. Looking at the past with today’s morals is a fools errand and I would rather hear the whole story than looking at it from today’s perspective. There are better books about this subject.

History with a lot of personal opinion which which the author tried to stretch fact & evidence to match

Performance was good but the story would have been better if the author could have stuck to history & facts instead of trying to stretch them to match his own opinions. The author is obviously against guns very existence & he tried to bend everything he could to support that belief. It would have been nice if he would have just told the story & let the reader decide the morality of Sam Colt & the entire time period in American instead of twisting things to support his own opinions & therefore making the person listening to it question the real value of what the book provides. Questions such as if I know he is trying to bend this to support his opinion did he then leave things out that would not? In the end I listened to it wanting a history book on my favorite time in American history & got some of that & the politics of the author that were unhelpful & unwanted. I wish I could get my money & time back on this book which saddens me