Customer Reviews

Glock: The Rise of America's Gun

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Glock is indeed a cultural phenomenon in America, and an innovative product (at least when it first appeared), with an interesting story behind it. So I was looking forward to reading this book. In some ways I was satisfied, but in others I ultimately disliked the book. My review is based on a pre-release sample of this book, so there is some chance that the published version is slightly modified, but I am sure that most of it will be the same. I hope you find this review useful.

In a nutshell, the author manages to capture the story of Glock - the company, the pistol, and the man behind it all. However, he also inserts a lot of commentary about guns in America which detracts from the story.

THE GOOD:

- You do not need any knowledge about Glock or firearms to read this book. The author describes in detail how revolvers and semi-autos work and how Glock is different.
- The book follows the major (and even lesser known) developments in the firearms market and legislation in the US throughout the history of Glock as a company. It starts with the 1986 Miami FBI shootout which precipitated the large-scale move away from revolvers towards semi-auto pistols. It covers things like the assault weapons ban and funny deals that Glock (the company) was involved in to try to buy back large capacity magazines and make a profit. Who knew that Rahm Emanuel, then a staffer in the White House and now mayor of Chicago, was involved in getting the major gun manufacturers to agree to voluntary safety locks?
- Gaston Glock and the people around him are well described with vivid vignettes. For example, how even after he was financially successful, he would apparently collect those little sample shampoos from hotels. Or how a hot stripper was used to promote the 10mm Glock.
- The author provides even handed treatment of most issues. For example, he admits that in the Miami shootout there was plenty of human error, and it wasn't simply about the good guys having inferior weapons. He admits that the Glock is not perfect and there have been numerous known malfunctions which the gun's aficionados turn a blind eye to, and the company itself tries to suppress through buying the defective units and silently settling cases out of court.
- Essentially Glock was in the right place at the right time, and this comes through really well in the book. Gaston Glock was a small-scale manufacturer of knives and simple household items when he overheard that the Austrian army was looking for a new pistol. Then there was plenty of controversy around the gun being undetectable by airport scanners (not true; turned out that employees manning the scanners were asleep once, and a Pentagon employee had an axe to grind), or sales to Arab dictators. Or NYC specifically banning the Glock, while the NYC police commissioner and firearms trainers flaunted the ban and carried the gun privately (until the press caught on). And lastly, the Glock was in many way similar to the revolvers it ended up replacing: simple and reliable, more so than its competitors.

THE SILLY:

- There are some non-sequitur statements like "Glock is the Google of modern civilian handguns" or mentioning how one police department wanted to upgrade their firepower so they went from .357 Magnum to 9mm.

THE UGLY:

- The author received some shooting lessons directly from Massad Ayoob, a well regarded shooting expert. In return, he makes Ayoob look silly for choosing to carry a weapon (never mind that Ayoob is a former police officer and minor celebrity who probably has good reasons to care about his safety). Referring to Ayoob and his girlfriend, the author sarcastically opines: "Like many gun owners who carry, they find last night's local television news report of an armed robbery at the neighborhood's 7-11 more compelling than the statistically small chance of being the unlucky customer paying for a Slurpee when a bad guy attacks."
- The author has some pervasive anti-gun bias that shows up even when he discusses facts and data which are inconclusive or contradict his opinion. The last chapter before the epilogue tries to discuss the impact of the Glock and handgun ownership on American society. When discussing the recent Virginia Tech massacre, the author says about the shooter: "Whether his choice of the Austrian brand raised the horrific body count remains a matter of speculation. It probably did." Later on he quips "A national ten-round cap seems like a logical compromise that lawful gun owners could easily tolerate." And then on the next page he admits that "The total number of guns in private hands in the United States is at an all-time high, yet violent crime is back down to where it was in the early 1970s. The murder rate is even lower - at the level of the early 1960s." Basically, he ends the book with a strange and contradictory chapter which tries to be an overarching synthesis of gun ownership in America, but ends up looking unfocused and bad.

VERDICT:

I wonder who this book was written for. The author works for Bloomberg and lives in New York City, where it is practically impossible to own a gun, and he clearly does not pretend he cares about guns. So maybe this book is for other big city yuppies who want to know about this Glock thing rappers sing about. For that audience, the book is great. However, for those who own a Glock (I do not, by the way): this may not be your book. The book is still valuable because of the investigative details it presents, but it is clear that the author is not very passionate about his subject.

There is plenty of interesting history in this book, especially about Gaston Glock and his company. I just wish the author had focused on that and avoided trying to analyze guns in America, a larger topic which is controversial and clearly beyond his grasp.

A new book about Glock pistols is always welcome when so few are out there. This book is history, though, not a how-to manual on proper pistol use. It is business history, the most interesting kind of history. As the story of Glock moves from its native soil in Europe to the much larger and astoundingly lucrative North American market the book also becomes social history and of course, political history. This is its virtue: a true story about the little-company-that-could, standing up to the big boys (Beretta, Smith & Wesson, H&K) and striking pay dirt on its first effort in a strange, new market. This is the kind of story that does not get old, no matter how many times it is told. Being largely unaware of the very competitive gun industry I found the story of the curtain rod manufacturer who made a gun very interesting.

While a fan and an owner of several Glocks I was never quite clear on the company's history and struggles until this book. There is some anti-gun bias in this book, but I'll cut the author a break and acknowledge that he does have to cover all sides of the gun debate in the US. This matters less to me now than in the past. As gun ownership soars around the country (indeed, cross-state conceal carry is one the hottest topics in Washington right now) more and more law-abiding citizens see the benefit for themselves in owing and keeping arms near at hand. As a consequence the anti-gun left has less influence on Main Street or on the Hill than in the past.

Enjoy this book: learn about how a plastics maker in Bavaria came to dominate the handgun market in little less than a generation. It's a great story.

Yes I did read it twice and listen to the audio version. Mostly because we interviewed the author for the Gun Rights Radio Network. As a very pro-gun person, I found the book very enjoyable and would recommend it. Paul did get a lot of the technical things about guns correct in a way that a lot of New York, liberal, journalists do not.

But as a very pro-gun person there were obviously some things in there I don't agree with. But in general I think both sides of the gun debate will enjoy this book. Gives you a glimpse into the firearms industry and how Smith & Wesson lost out to a foreign company.

As a long time admitted lover of all kinds of weapons, especially guns, I found this book very interesting and easy to read. I finished the 279 page text in one evening of focused reading. Even though I have owned and fired numerous rifles and handguns, I had only fired a Glock one time on the range where one of my fellow officers carried the Glock. At that time, as range instructor for my agency, I thought the Glock was the ugliest gun I had ever seen. However, the officers that carried them seemed to praise the Glock.

After reading this book, I better understand why this gun became so popular with many law enforcement officers and police firearm instructors.

This book does not paint a very attractive portrait of the creator of the gun. Gaston Glock, who it seems, was able to make friends with both socialistic politicians in Austria and democratic governments in the United States, did not seem to really like Americans, but was a smart and ruthless businessman. As it turns out, he and his contacts became very wealthy selling his Glock in the United States.

The twenty chapters detail the history of the Glock and the individuals who promoted this Austrian made firearm in the United States. The first chapter begins with The F.B.I. shoot out in Miami in April of 1986. Pointing out how they were outgunned in a tragic shoot out. The rest of the book details how Gaston Glock first approached officials in the Austrian Army about creating a better gun than the Walther P-38. Steyr. How the gun was designed and the various people who helped promote the gun is also covered in this text. This volume outlines the many obstacles that had to be overcome to finally get acceptance of the Glock with American police officers and the American military.

In conclusion, this book will be of great interest to anyone who is into firearms. This includes the military and law enforcement community. Several well-known firearm experts are mentioned in this book such as Emanuel Kapelsohn and Massad Ayoob, who gave their own views concerning the Glock.

Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Predator Hunter: A Warrior's Memoir)

As the satisfied owner of a Glock 23 I was immediately interested in this book. I had decided a couple of years ago to get my first handgun and wanted to make a good decision. In my research I read a lot and made a point to talk with as many policemen as I could get to talk to me.

Out of all of my study one pistol clearly took the lead and that was the Glock. I had not really heard about the Glock before I started my research so this was all new territory to me. The major feature I heard over and over was its reliability; this came mostly from the policemen I had talked to about handguns. I even found that officers who did not carry a Glock were recommending that was the pistol I should get.

I took that first step of buying the Glock and selected the Model 23 because it used the 40 S&W ammunition. This had better stopping power than the Model 17 which used the nine-millimeter ammunition many had told me. After that I signed up for classes and eventually got my concealed handgun license. So far the gun has been used only on a range and has performed flawlessly.

When I saw the book on Glock was available I ordered it immediately; after buying and using the gun I have continued to hear many, many good things about this pistol and I was interested in more details about the gun and how it came to be.

This book does a grand job of telling the story of the pistol and the man behind the pistol, Gaston Glock. The book actually starts with a description of an infamous shootout in Miami, Florida in 1986 where the FBI is outgunned by bank robbers. This disastrous experience was the catalyst for law enforcement agencies to shift from revolvers to pistols with much larger magazines.

The book traces the history of the Glock starting in 1980 in a hallway where Gaston Glock overheard two colonels in the Austrian Ministry of Defense discussing a need for an improved pistol and the 50 year old Glock saw this as his big chance.

By 1986 the Glock had established itself in Austria and was perfectly poised to satisfy the new perceived need for an improved pistol for law enforcement agencies in the USA. The book goes on to describe the good fortune and fortunate timing of the Glock pistol on the handgun scene not only in the USA but also in Europe.

The following chapters give very interesting insights into the workings of the gun industry and the various organizations charged with law enforcement. The Glock organization quickly developed its own company character which was an extension of the personality of Glock himself.

The pistol was immensely successful and sales volume in the US grew at a rate that far exceeded their fondest dreams. Growth, however, brings problems as well as solutions and the Glock organization was not to be immune to this reality.

The second half of the book is devoted less to the pistol and more to the organization, its problems and its assorted battles with politicians and competition. While these are of interest, they sometimes get a little tedious; I found out some things which I would really have rather not known.

We are living in exciting times where much seems to be changing; the Glock pistol is riding the crest of this wave where handguns and the Second Amendment are concerned.

I recommend this book for any who have an interest in guns and particularly the Glock pistol.

This is an extremely well written book that will be enjoyed by people who have never fired a firearm in their life, and by those who have. Mr. Barrett does a wonderful job presenting the intriguing history of the development of the Glock pistol platform. I highly recommend it.

Somehow, I can see this book being enjoyable even for non-gun people: it has a lot of history, two sides to every story, interesting anecdotes, and it somehow entices the reader to come back for another chapter (I don't always find this about non-fiction).

A Glock 26 was my first real handgun, and I've always thought of Glocks as the typical handgun. Strangely, I never had any idea just how big they are in the world. For that matter, I didn't realize just how important winning over the U.S. was, and further, I didn't realize that Glock came out of nowhere, with the inventor previously knowing nothing about guns. Anyway, it's been a very interesting and informative read. As I said, I suspect anybody that doesn't hate guns, but has some vague interest in any aspect of the company would enjoy the read.

This book also manages to stay objective and in no way tries to sway one's political opinions on the matter. Well done.

This is an interesting history of the Glock gun and its rise to prominence worldwide. It covers a number of angles such as the technology of the Glock, the political landscape that has challenged (and boosted) the Glock through the decades and the various marketing strategies that have both countered political challenges and pulled in millions of buyers.

I felt the book was fairly evenhanded in both its praise and critiscm of Glock as a company and a product. The presentation is matter of fact and comes across as trustworthy.

I am not a gun owner but I recommend this book to those interested in the story of Glock or the general theme of guns in American culture during the last 40 years. It's well written, easy to read, and informative. Now that I'm done, I'm passing it along to my dad (an avid gun user). I hope to update my review with his feedback.

This book contains a wealth of facts, distilled-myths and almost reads as Gaston Glocks biography without being dry. When I first received this book I couldn't put it down. It shows early on that Mr. Barrett most certainly did his homework but what amazes me is its one of the first books chocked full of facts and figures that doesn't come off as a boring read.

From the first page to the closing statements it was an amazingly in-depth look into the history of Glock. Seriously, its almost as if the author was there in the meeting with the Austrians or on the front lines in Miami. A personal "nicety" if you will was the unbiased view on guns in America and around the world. As a 2nd amendment supporter and avid gun enthusiast I was cautious about such a book but was quickly and pleasantly surprised.

Guns aside, Glock is one of those companies that you just think to yourself "how the @%@! did they do it". Well after reading this book you'll know. Gaston was not one to follow the norm and it payed off greatly. Sure he probably broke some rules and most certainly upset some people, but in the end he showed that anything is possible. He also proved that a lonely knife builder can revolutionize the market that Smith & Wesson is just now beginning to penetrate.

Whether your interested in guns, business, history or just curious how much research and fact checking one author could do, this book is a must read.

Paul M. Barrett's "Glock: the rise of America's Gun" is an intelligent and thoroughly-researched examination of the Glock Automatic pistol, and the far-reaching effects of its invention.

The Good: Very well-written history of the creation of the Glock firearm and its social, economic, and political ramifications.

The Bad: A few rough spots that many readers won't notice (two odd edits, varied spellings, etc) in the review copy that will probably be ironed out in the edition that hits the bookstores.

The Ugly: Nothing.

Glock: the Rise of America's Gun, is a book full of surprises that breaks all the usual expectations. Its title and subject invite you to assume it was some sort of companion voume to a survivalist's handbook, complete with instructions for take-down and cleaning, or that it was some sort of hysterical screed calling for the elimination of the right to own handguns, but nothing could be further from the truth.

It isn't a book written by a gun-lover, nor is it one written from the standpoint of a gun-control advocate. What it is, is a very intelligently written, well-researched history of an invention, its place in the market, and the politics and personalities that made its rise to dominance in the American handgun market possible.

Partly a biography of Gaston Glock, the book is clear-eyed and pitiless in its story of Glock's transition from an introverted Austrian engineer running a cottage industry in knives and tools sold to the Austrian military to a jet-setting billionaire who never passed up an opportunity to call an American "stupid" even as the American Market with its "more-is-better" thirst for firepower created the basis for his fortune. Glock, however, is only one of many personalities in the story: there are also the people whom Glock used and discarded and the sleazy financial consultant from Luxembourg who siphoned money from Glock's holdings who would one day hire a man to try to kill him.

More interesting than the biography are the book's treatment of the political and economic factors and the constant intervention of dumb luck in its purest forms that created the openings in the American market for firearms that are the basis of Gaston Glock's fortune.

Over and over, luck factors into the story, from fears in the early Eighties that the police and FBI were "outgunned" by criminals and needed more firepower in the form of higher-capacity handguns; to the American Media's initial hysterical misperception of the Glock as a "terrorist weapon" that could be easily disassembled and slipped past metal detectors; to foreign-owned American firearms manufacturers, like Smith and Wesson, who operated in such a dizzying state of disarray that they were unable to provide a weapon of similar quality to face the threat the Austrian pistol posed to their markets; to the weapon's acceptance as a mainstay of popular culture from sources as diverse as hip-hop and gangsta rap to the television show, "Law and Order."

Perhaps the greatest of mister Barrett's achievements in writing this book, is the balance and clarity of his vision in his handling of what could be called "The Great American Gun Debate" within which both side's take-no-prisoners stance on issues replace contemplation and real thought with hysteria and mythology.

All in all, Paul M. Barrett's "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun" is an entertaining, well-written book that is worth reading and one that should be read by anyone who wants insight into how our society works when it comes to our love of machines that generate lethal force and just for fun, when you get to the last page, you can hold it sideways.