Tommy Gun: How General Thompson's Submachine Gun Wrote History [Hardcover]

Bill Yenne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 2009

The Trench Broom. The Annihilator. The Persuader. The Chopper. The Chicago Typewriter. The Tommy Gun.

 

The Thompson submachine gun has gone by many names, and for nearly a century the gun’s image has been indelibly marked on the popular consciousness. In this broad-reaching cultural and military history, Bill Yenne charts the tommy gun's unpredictable and one-of-a-kind career, from its infamy in the hands of Al Capone and the Chicago mobsters, to its shady days with the IRA, to its indelible place in the arsenal of World War II, and its truly immortal and ongoing role in Hollywood.

 

The tommy gun is without a doubt the most famous, and the most infamous, American firearm of the twentieth century. Since its birth in the aftermath of World War I, the tommy gun has enjoyed a varied career on both sides of the law. Though General John T. Thompson invented it for the American military, it first found notoriety thanks to its part in events such at St. Valentine's Day Massacre. But when the United States entered World War II, the gun's true power as an essential, life-saving weapon made it an iconic weapon of the American GI.

 

Full of incredible stories from the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific, America's gangland, and Hollywood studio back lots, Bill Yenne's Tommy Gun is the definitive story of this unique American icon.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Thompson submachine gun is one of the weapons that define the 20th century. In the hands of soldiers and insurgents, police and criminals, it has made its mark from American cities to the jungles of Africa. The Thompson remains a feature of movies, novels and songs. Yenne (Superfortress), a well-known writer on military subjects, presents the Tommy gun's technical and social history from its genesis during WWI—designed by Gen. John Taliaferro Thompson—as a projected trench broom through its spectacular career as a gangster weapon during Prohibition. Yenne explains the business and technical dynamics that refined the Thompson's design and made it marketable even to Depression-slashed military budgets. The Thompson saw widespread use during WWII as the British/American counterpart of the German Schmeisser and the Russian PPSH. In every theater of war, the Thompson's high rate of fire, the hitting power of its .45 cartridge and its relative accuracy more than compensated for its 10-pound weight and short range. Rendered officially obsolete by cheaper, simpler designs, the Thompson is an American, an immortal icon, says Yenne in this informative history. 45 b&w photos. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Lethal-firepower fans should warm to this comprehensive, nicely illustrated account of the weapon that made the drive-by shooting feasible. . . . The tommy gun's enduring image plays as large a part in Yenne's presentation as its technical details and legitimate applications, which only makes this all the more excellent a history of one of the most durable, storied, and deadly of weapons."--Booklist

“To find out everything there is to know about Gen. Thompson’s trench broom, check out Bill Yenne’s Tommy Gun. . . . If you’re looking for fascinating stories, Yenne delivers. . . . Yenne reminds us that every generation is remembered for the artifacts it leaves behind: Harley Davidsons. Route 66. Coonskin caps. The Apollo 11 lunar module. The Tommy gun.”--Bookgasm.com

"An in-depth, entertaining history of the legendary weapon."--Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Bill Yenne and his work:

 

"A must-read."--Shooting Illustrated on Tommy Gun

 

"Excels as a study in leadership."

--The New Yorker on Sitting Bull

 

"In this remarkable, tragic portrait, Sitting Bull emerges as a thoughtful, passionate, and very human figure."

--Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Sitting Bull

 

"Splendid. . .a book that has the rare quality of being both an excellent reference work and a pleasure to read."

--The Wall Street Journal on Indian Wars

 

"Yenne's readable, anecdotal style realistically depicts life in combat and on the home front."

--Booklist on Rising Sons

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (October 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312383266
• ISBN-13: 978-0312383268
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 5.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,052,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bill Yenne is the author of several novels and over three dozen books on historical topics, as well as having been a contributor to encyclopedias of both world wars. He has traveled throughout the world researching his books.

The "New Yorker" wrote of "Sitting Bull," his biography of the great Lakota leader, that it "excels as a study in leadership." This book was named to the number 14 spot among Amazon's 100 Best Books of the Year.

"Library Journal" observed that "enthusiastic World War II readers will be drawn to" his dual biography, "Aces High: The Heroic Story of the Two Top Scoring American Aces of World War II."

Recently, his book "Convair Deltas" was named as "Book of the Month" by "Air Classics," while his book "Tommy Gun" was named "Pick of the Month" by "Shooting Illustrated."

His book "Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint" was listed among the top business books of the year by "Condé Nast Portfolio Magazine," which rated Yenne's tome as its TOP pick for "Cocktail Conversation."

Yenne's "Rising Sons: The Japanese American GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II," was praised by Walter Boyne, former Director of the National Air & Space Museum, who called it "a fast moving... page turner," and the "best book yet written on the saga."

The "Wall Street Journal" wrote, when reviewing his "Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West," that Yenne writes with "cinematic vividness," and says of his work that it "has the rare quality of being both an excellent reference work and a pleasure to read."

The author lives in San Francisco, California, and on the web at www.BillYenne.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Where are the editors and fact checkers?, March 15, 2010

By 

John B. Coffin (El Cerrito, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tommy Gun: How General Thompson's Submachine Gun Wrote History (Hardcover)

Except for collecting war stories about Thompson users, there is no reason for this book. 'The Gun that Made the Twenties Roar,' etc. cover the same ground.

There are howling errors throughout which show that the author lacks enough knowledge to appreciate the significance of his subject.

E.g.: He thinks the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) operated on the blowback system. No one-man portable gun can fire rifle ammunition by blowback. The Thompson--and the 1918 Bergmann--were innovative in using pistol ammunition, which CAN be handled by blowback. The BAR is gas-operated, as 10 seconds of research would show.

He thinks that the WWI stop-gap rifle issued by the US Army (the M1917, or 'American Enfield') was a new design and/or an improvement on the M1903A3. The production of this gun, involving General Thompson, is an amazing story of an abandoned British prototype frantically put into production for an army that could not be equipped in time.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A weapon with many names..., November 29, 2009

By 

James D. Crabtree "Doc Crabtree" (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tommy Gun: How General Thompson's Submachine Gun Wrote History (Hardcover)

The Thompson submachine gun has a unique place in history and this book brings its story alive. The weapon was designed by a former Army ordnance officer for use by the troops in WWI... but it was too late for that war. The weapon was refined to re-equip the American peacetime Army... but budget cuts and bureacratic confusion prevented its adoption. It was marketed to police forces for the purpose of law and order... but its best-known owners were the gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s.

Bill Yenne's writing brings this topic alive and the illustrations gives the reader a good idea of what the weapon was, and still is. A fascinating book, it is great reading not just for what happened with the Tommy Gun but what might have been. He even looks at the Tommy Gun in popular culture and talks about groups who get together and shoot these classic weapons.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A weak effort..., September 11, 2010

By 

D. Albert (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tommy Gun: How General Thompson's Submachine Gun Wrote History (Hardcover)

This book is between a "1" and a "2," in my opinion. I'm giving it a "2," only because it has some WWII accounts of Thompson use. It's a weak effort, and the author does not appear to fully grasp the subject. You can see by the low price that these are now available for purchase on the used (and new) market that the book does not hold much dollar value, which is representative of what you'll find inside. The book references listed within appear to have been cut and pasted from Wikipedia. Don't waste your time with this book, unless you are such a Thompson fanatic that you have to have every book on the subject. I include it in my library for that reason.