AMERICAN guns history weapons ARMING AMERICA gun culture bear arms HB/DJ

Description: BOOK TITLE: Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture AUTHOR: Michael A. Bellesiles PUBLISHER/COPYRIGHT: Alfrd A Knopf c 2000, stated first edition, no additional printings indicated ILLUSTRATIONS: no DIMENSIONS: approx 6 1/4" x 9 1/2" x 604 pages (lots of fascinating reading!) CONDITION: Hardback book in excellent condition in very good, lightly shelfworn, dust jacket. A few small creases to dj, and outer page edges rough cut. Interior clean and unmarked by former owner. CONTENTS:from the dj front flap "How and when did Americans develop their obsession with guns? Is gun-related violence so deeply embedded in American historical experience as to be immutable? The accepted answers to these questions are ""mythology,"" says Michael A. Bellesiles. Basing his arguments on sound and prodigious research, Bellesiles makes it clear that gun ownership was the exception--even on the frontier--until the age of industrialization. In Colonial America the average citizen had virtually no access to or training in the use of firearms, and the few guns that did exist were kept under strict control. No guns were made in America until after the Revolution, and there were few gunsmiths to keep them in repair. Bellesiles shows that the U.S. government, almost from its inception, worked to arm its citizens, but it met only public indifference and resistance until the 1850s, when technological advances--such as repeating revolvers with self-contained bullets--contributed to a surge in gun manufacturing. Finally, we see how the soaring gun production engendered by the Civil War, and the decision to allow soldiers to keep their weapons at the end of the conflict, transformed the gun from a seldom-needed tool to a perceived necessity--opposing ideas that are still at the center of the fight for and against gun control today..." Publisher's NoteBellesiles (history, Emory U.) explodes a number of myths about the role of guns in American history. Examining probate records, correspondence of militia commanders, and a number of other sources he finds that gun ownership among average Americans wasn't widespread until as late as the Civil War. He also argues that from the very beginning of European settlement, guns were highly regulated by authorities and that guns were viewed as having a special status as being ultimately at the disposal of government. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Industry Reviews"[A] groundbreaking study of the material basis of the gun culture."Atlantic Monthly - Richard Slotkin (11/01/2000) "Historians often seem to be custodians of knowledge mostly irrelevant to today's concerns; indeed, they reinforce this view by condemning those accounts of the past written to support positions on modern issues. Even so, excellent scholars have written books that make (or unmistakably imply) a polemical point without sacrificing intellectual rigor. Such works can, under the right circumstances, powerfully influence policy and public opinion. C. Vann Woodward's brief 1955 history of segregation, THE STRANGE CAREER OF JIM CROW, offers the classic example of how good history can have a powerful modern effect; Michael Bellesiles' ARMING AMERICA: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, a study of how Americans fell in love with firearms, may prove to be another."Los Angeles Times Book Review - Fred Anderson (09/17/2000) "Bellesiles has dispersed the darkness that covered the gun's early history in America. He provides overwhelming evidence that our view of the gun is as deep a superstition as any that affected Native Americans in the 17th century."New York Times Book Review - Garry Wills (09/10/2000) Ebay encourages use of ISBN's, but the information does not always exactly match the particular book. Should details differ in the prefilled information and in the listing, consider the auction listing description to be correct for the particular volume offered for sale. Check out my other items as I frequenlty list related items in the same week! PLEASE CHECK MY EBAY STORE....I PLACE MANY ITEMS IN THE STORE, WHICH DOES NOT BENEFIT FROM EBAY SEARCH, SO YOU MAY FIND A TREASURE THERE! 1d Thanks for viewing my auction! BooksTemplate by merrygocats

Price: 17.97 USD

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

End Time: 2025-01-25T14:29:35.000Z

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