The Gunning of America: Business and the Making of American Gun Culture
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.73 (679 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0465048951 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 528 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-04-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Politics trumps history, this is an advocacy book, not a history book John R. Lott Jr. This review was published in The Weekly Standard August 1, 2016Pamela Haag calls gun makers “merchants of death.” And America’s love affair with guns, she says, didn’t really start until the late 1800s, when the “merchants of death” convinced Americans that t. O. J Thienhaus said Thorough a Research, but Uninteresting Characters. This is a meticulously researched book detailing the history of America's gun industry. It nicely puts the origins of the disproportionate presence of guns in today's America in the context of 19th century marketing strategies. What gives the book a drag though is the fact that its protagonists. "An academic account of the early days of gun manufacturing in America" according to Marcus Crowley. As a non-American, I am keen to understand America's obsession with guns. That's why I bought this book whose cover caught my eye.I did learn a few things, but was disappointed that such a recent book didn't venture far into the 20th century, let alone this one. The author's area of expertise w
It is because of this exceptional relationship that American civilians are more heavily armed than the citizens of any other nation.Or so we're told.In The Gunning of America, historian Pamela Haag overturns this conventional wisdom. Through the meticulous examination of gun industry archives, Haag challenges the myth of a primal bond between Americans and their firearms. Guns have never sold themselves”; rather, through advertising and innovative distribution campaigns, the gun industry did. His daughter-in-law Sarah Winchester was a different story. But Oliver Winchestera shirtmaker in his previous careerhad no apparent qualms about a life spent arming America. American gun culture, she argues, developed not because the gun was exceptional, but precisely because it was not: guns proliferated in America because throughout most of the nation's history, they were perceived as an unexceptional commodity, no different than buttons or typewriters.Focusing on the history of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, one of the most iconic arms manufacturers in America, Haag challenges many basic assumptions of how and when America became a gun culture. Under the leadership of Oliver Winchester and his heirs, the company used aggressive, sometimes ingenious sales and marketing techniques to create new markets for their product. Over the course of its 150 year history, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company sold over 8 million guns. Americans have always loved guns. Sh
San Francisco ChronicleAn inspired new book Haag's book is strongest when it upends the belief that America has had an uninterrupted love affair with guns.”Times Literary Supplement (UK)Haag excels in decoding the succession of commercial promotions that helped to produce gun exceptionalism By tracing the evolution of advertising campaigns, she pinpoints how guns found their way into each corner of everyday life”Maclean's, (Canada)A detailed and devastating history Haag deftly deconstructs the idea that guns have always