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

by Anthony Smith (Author) "RICHARD GATLING DID IT, so he said, to save life..." (more)
Key Phrases: Sam Colt, Hiram Maxim, World War One (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Smith makes machine guns sound like the first weapon of mass destruction in this detailed history. At least statistically, no implement of warfare can compare to the world's 600 million small arms and light weapons-chiefly among them mechanized guns-which, in various arenas of combat, cause 300,000 deaths annually. Smith illustrates how machine guns were propelled into existence by the same dark impulse that brought forth the first atomic weapon: mankind's desire to eliminate enemies quickly and in great numbers. And there are familiar justifications: Richard Gatling, creator of the eponymous rapid-firing gun, sounds like a Cold War physicist at Los Alamos when he defends his design as a life-saving device. "The inventor of such a machine would prove a greater benefactor of his race, than he who should endow a thousand hospitals," he wrote in 1852. Smith documents how machine guns were criticized, at first, because "there was no glory" in mowing down enemies; and how colonial military strategists let glory be damned when they unleashed their Maxims upon "the dense masses" of Africa. He also argues that machine guns had their most devastating effect during World War I, where they made trench warfare, and the accompanying slaughter, practically inevitable. Indeed, this micro-history contains many important facts and observations. Unfortunately, however, it never quite finds the time to step back and expand its field of vision, a tactic that would help win over an audience beyond that of die-hard gun enthusiasts. Frustrating loops in the chronology and sloppy writing may also irritate general readers. Most perplexingly, the book ends right when the story becomes most relevant, barely discussing the post-World War II development and effects of these now ubiquitous weapons.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Extraordinary...Smith engages the reader's emotions." -San Antonio Express News

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312320663
• ISBN-13: 978-0312320669
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,565,879 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible instrument of death - waa!, May 24, 2006

By	Michael W. Johnson "mwj999" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Machine Gun: The Story of the Men and the Weapon That Changed the Face of War (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Political, not technical, history, February 3, 2007

By	Bruce Brodnax "L.A. Biker" (Lost Angeles, somewhere out in the smog) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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. 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)

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but repetitive, January 1, 2006

By	Jeremiah J. Mustered "jjm3233" (New Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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?