Customer Reviews

The History of Smith & Wesson Firearms

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This book has been pretty roundly panned by reviewers on this forum, and it's true, this book coulda been, shoulda been better, but it's not entirely without merit.

It seems that Dean K. Boorman is more of a historian writing about guns than a pure "gun-guy," and some of the errors in this book seem attributable to poor editing rather than poor research, but then on page 24, for example, he refers to a model being introduced in June, 1861, two months "before" the firing on Fort Sumter to begin the Civil War. Many readers will catch this rather egregious error right away (the event was in April, 1861).

On page 45 he refers to the .32 S&W Long cartridge as being a half-inch longer than the .32 S&W. Actually, the case is .32 longer, and the factory loaded cartridge is .35 longer. There just doesn't seem to be any good excuse for errors such as these (but ".99mm caliber" on page 73 is so idiotic that this just had to be inserted by someone other than the author, right?)

Also, he habitually refers to guns as ".32in caliber" for example. This is at least an odd way to express caliber, and maybe even a little annoying. Using .32 in or .32 caliber makes perfect sense and is in line with convention, but .32 in caliber is a tautology and diminishes the sense that the writer is truly expert.

But I do have some positive things to say about this work. First of all, the many pictures in this book are more than just "coffee-table-book" dress-up; they represent a really fruitful search, and their diversity and quality is admirable. There are interesting pictures in this book, especially those of historical nature, you won't likely see elsewhere.

Another good thing about the pictures included is that there are many photos of representative production guns. This sounds normal enough, but in my opinion some books by collectors go overboard on exceedingly rare and highly embellished pieces that are so far from the mainstream as to be of minimal interest to a reader who is not a millionaire specialist collector, which would include 99.99% of all readers, including me.

A reader who is a beginner on the subject, having read this book cover to cover, would come away with a good working knowledge of the subject -- there is some exceedingly elementary content here. He or she can then unlearn the mistakes and overcome the errata. But there are also tidbits here and there for the more advanced reader. Whether or not such tidbits are worth the price of admission is up to the individual purchaser. The answer is not a flat "no."

There are some nice pictures in this book, and some interesting stories. If you can find it at a discount store, then it may be worth the purchase price.

The writing style leaves a lot to be desired. It's as if the author did not know anything about firearms, and was writing the book using interviews and publications. The inaccuracies are plentiful (almost every paragraph), and some of them are amusing (ever hear of a .99mm?). Entire chapters are nothing more than a description of what is in the S&W catalog.

Reminds me of a travel book I purchased in Prague about 15 years ago. Has great pictures, but it was translated into English by somebody who did not speak English. The words may be English, but you can't read it because it makes absolutely no sense.

this book, long awaited, is full of errors and mislabelings.. Contains very little useful collector infomrmation. A coffee table book for casual interest.
No addition whatever to knowledge of this field.
Best done without.

Of all of the Smith & Wesson books on the market and I own them all, this is the poorest excuse I have ever seen. The text is not only juvenile in content but inaccurate as well. There are some excellent photographs, and as a picture book it's not bad. Just don't read it.

As a collector AND afficionado, this book and the Standard Catalog of Smith and Wesson will get me what I need. One size seldom fits all, and I believe it is unfair to expect such from a single book. This attactive edition provides interesting information, very nice photographs, and (particularly neat) two pages devoted to pictures of the TWELVE REVOLVERS and their engraving, AND an explanatory drawing of the triple lock system. There are other books for the deadly serious collectors; this is simply a nice overview with a lot of good stuff.