Customer Reviews

Machine Gun: The Story of the Men and the Weapon That Changed the Face of War

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I bought the paperback version of this book used, but still feel that I spent too much money on it. Some of the insights into the personal lives of Samuel Colt, Richard Gatling, and Hiram Maxim were mildly interesting. Still, one can't help but wonder whether the author's portrayal of Maxim, repeatedly maligned as a cold-hearted egotist, owes more to the author's prejudices than the actual record.

I had hoped for more of a history of the technological development of modern infantry weapons with a minimum of ideology. What the author delivered was a great deal of repetitive whining about the casualties in the 1916 Battle of the Somme interspersed with a few personal vignettes of the three inventors mentioned. The paper might be useful for kindling. If it were a bit softer and more absorbent, it might rate two stars.

The best part of this book is the bibliography; it is clear that the author performed extensive research into the history of automatic firearms.

The breakdown of the book is pretty much as follows: 1st 1/3rd: fairly thorough if necessarily brief biographies of Samual Colt [who would normally merit no more than passing mention in any other book on automatic weapons], Richard Gatling, and Hiram Maxim. 2nd 1/2 of text: political history of the development (or rather, lack thereof) of the tactical and strategic use of machine guns by Western powers, esp. Great Britain up to and including the 1st World War [aka "The Great War,""The War to End all Wars"] - this section is the tedious part complained about by other reviewers. With reason! It is highly repetitive, is weighted with judgmental hyperbole, and overall contributed little to the value of the book. Save yourself some time & skip the ~ 80 pages of chapters 11-14: they're all focused exclusively on WWI & its tragic losses, & have nothing to do with the further development of automatic weaponry. The remaining 1/6th of the text is devoted to cursory overviews of Isaac Lewis [of Lewis Gun fame], John M. Browning [perhaps the most gifted & prolific gun designer ever, if only because it seemed to have been the sole focus of his professional life], and Mikhail Kalashnikov.

The book has a few minor factual or technical errors in it, but overall is well-written and never "talks down" to the reader, but with an inadequate title; it should alternatively be titled _The Development of the Machine Gun and Its Affect upon the Great War_ or perhaps _Why the British Fear Guns, esp. Machine Guns_, especially since developments after 1920 are given such short shrift, merely touching upon a couple of the automatic arms developed during WWII, with not even mention of anything developed post-1950 (ie, nothing in the preceding 50 years from the 2002 copyright date!)

A sampling of some of the more interesting-sounding sources listed in the bibliography:
_Airships in Peace and War_, R.P. Hearne [London, 1910]
_The Amazing Hiram Maxim_, A. Hawkey [Spellmount, 2001]
_The Chronic Inventor; life and works of Hiram Maxim_, J.E. Hamilton [J.E. Hamilton, 1991]
__Dynamite Stories and Some Interesting Facts about Explosives_, H. Maxim [Stokes & Co, N.Y. 1916]
_Gatling, a photographic remembrance_, E.F. Stephonson, Jr. [Meherrin River Press 1933]
_The Gatling Gun_, Paul Wahl & Don Toppel [Arco Pub. 1965] <- (this is an excellent work, it's a crime that it's out of print!)
_Gatlings at Santiago_, John Parker [Hudson Kimberly Publ. 1898] <- (this was the personal account written by the first officer in the U.S. military to effectively utilize the machine gun/Gatling gun in battle.)
_Genius in the Family_, Hiram P. Maxim [Michael Joseph 1936] <- (Percy Maxim was the nephew of Hiram, and was a prolific inventor himself, being responsible for the firearm "silencer" among other patents)
_The Lewis Gun_, J.D. Truby [Paladin Press 1988]
_The Machine Gun_, George M. Chinn [Bureau of Ordnance U.S. Navy 1951]
_The Machine Gunner's Handbook_, J. Bostok [W.H. Smith & Sons 1916]
_My Life_, Hiram Maxim [Methuen 1915]
_Rapid Fire: the development of automatic cannon, machine guns and their ammunition_, Anthony G. Williams [Airlife 2000]
_Russian Army and the Japanese War_, General Kuropatkin [John Murray 1909)
_Vickers, a history_, J.D. Scott [Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1963)

Anothony Smith's book traces the lives of many early inventors, including: Gatling, Colt, Maxim, Lewis and Browning (among others). It also traces the usage of the guns and the mindset different countries from the Civil War to the modern era, with emphasis on the colonial wars of the 19th century to World War I.

My main complaint about this book is the repetitve nature of many observations. We understand that the British/French mindset at the outset of WWI was that machine guns were not for use in civilized warfare, must we read this observation a dozen times?

I wont repeat the details contained in the other reviews. The book is well-written, the topic is interesting, and I learned a lot about some inventors who get very little attention from scholars. This is a dandy book to take along on vacation or a business trip. It gets 5 Stars from me for being what a book is supposed to be...entertaining and informative.

"Machine Gun: The Story of the Men and the Weapon That Changed the Face of War" is at times slow, but interesting and worth reading nonetheless.

Anthony Smith does not simply document the history and development of the machine gun; he tells the story of early American ingenuity and entrepreneurship. He writes about warfare and the voraciousness of various countries vying for power and of others struggling to maintain supremacy.

Anthony Smith tells the history of a fledging United States that welcomed any innovations that would produce more for less. Smith writes of how Samuel Colt revolutionized and perfected mass production to the point where artisanship was replaced by factory production. Anthony Smith illustrates the industrialization of American society during the 1800s. He describes an early case of female discrimination whereby women were segregated from men while manufacturing cartridges - a dangerous undertaking.

Smith gives the reader well documented biographical insights on important American machine gun inventors, such as James Puckle, Richard Gatling, Samuel Colt, Hiram Maxim, John M. Browning, Isaac Lewis and others. Smith discusses the various motives behind these inventors. Some of these men invented and perfected their machine guns for diverse reasons: some, like Richard Gatling, invented the Gatling to save lives during America's Civil War while others, like Hiram Maxim, and Samuel Colt created their weapons for fame and fortune - while others simply wished "to make a pile of money".

The author illustrates how the Winchester 73 may have won the West, but it was the machine gun that decided the fait of men during full-scale battles. Smith clearly documents the evolution and capabilities of the machine gun and the role it played during wars in Europe, Asia, Africa . . . and the "war to end all wars" - World War I - a war where millions of soldiers and civilians perished by the indiscriminate rapid-firing machine gun. The reader will learn of countries that were fascinated with the machine gun and willing to purchase it in the thousands - countries like Egypt, China, France, Russia, which purchased the largest quantities, while the British army procured the least - the British army resisted all innovations in military tactics. However, Britain would learn that "if attrition of an enemy was required, they [the machine gun] could do the job very satisfactorily". Moreover, the machine gun did do the job satisfactorily in the Russo-Turkish, Franco-Prussian, and Zulu, as well as in other wars. Nevertheless, the machine gun had "severely fractured the old style of warfare, with romance, glory, and precious pageantry"; this has all but disappeared according to some British military leaders.

Although Anthony Smith's book "Machine Gun: The Story of the Men and the Weapon That Changed the Face of War" is at times slow, it is still worth reading; it will give readers a good understanding of the men and the inventions that changed not just war, but also society in general.