THE GUN.

For reasons that will be clear below, let’s decorate with this photograph. It’s from, as Marines like to say, back in the day.

Excerpts from the review by MARINE CORPS GAZETTE:

“Seemingly limitless books and articles exist about the Kalashnikov AK–47. One might happen upon several in the bargain books section of the typical local bookstore, and these books are often filled with glossy pictures and technical drawings. The Gun: The AK–47 and the Evolution of War, by C.J. Chivers, is not for the casual page-turning picture lover. The Gun is for disciplined and devoted scholars of the history of modern war, politics, and ideology, and how the automatic weapon has forced the transformation of the essence of combat.”

“The Gun is a colossal effort… …Chivers… …appears to have created a history-laced masterpiece.”

“Through painstaking research, [he] not only explains the technology of the weapons of the times, but also the sociological, economic, and political forces that established the cause…”

“Readers should be forewarned that they will be educated in circles that far exceed the AK–47, which is not to say that the full analysis of the AK–47, in and of itself, is not a massive undertaking. Contained herein is also the sorrowful and humiliating juxtaposition of the procurement and early combat performance of the M16 rifle in Vietnam.”

“The author illuminates the personal motivations of the inventors, the bureaucracies and political forces, and the horrible toll these weapons have taken on human history.”

“…although this book may not be appropriate for the bookshelf of a Marine Corps recruiting office (given some of the history contained therein), The Gun should be required reading for Marines.”

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH

One Good Deal After Another. The image is one of several color panels from an official, but long ago retired, United States Marine Corps recruiting brochure. I’ll have a separate post about it soon on At War. (With thanks to then-Capt. Gene Augustine, U.S.M.C., for finding this and sharing it — in 1993.)



The independent Firearm Blog just posted its review.  An excerpt:

Fortunately, instead of delving into the technical details of the ubiquitous AK-47/74/10x design C.J. Chivers instead tells the story of the background of the modern machine gun, the Soviet development of AK-47, the American response and the AK’s effects on modern warfare… …Chivers explained his reasons for examining the wider context:

“The significance of the automatic Kalashnikov lies deeper than its origins in Stalin’s Soviet Union, its technical utility as a killing tool, its famed reliability and ease of use, the awesome size of its number or the multiplicity of its meanings—though these themes are all essential. The richer context is this: The automatic Kalashnikov offers a lens for examining the miniaturization and simplification of rapid-fire firearms, a set of processes that when uncoupled from free markets and linked to mass production in the planned economies of opaque or brittle nations, enabled automatic firepower to reach uncountable hands.”

The author was the New York Times’s Moscow correspondent and so superbly placed to investigate the history of the AK… …I don’t hesitate to say that if you read and enjoy The Firearm Blog, I would be very surprised if The Gun disappointed you. It is packed full of fascinating facts and insights into the history and evolution of firearms. On just about every page I was thinking to myself “this paragraph would make a great blog post.”

Recommendation: Buy - you won’t be sorry.

Amazon Link : The Gun 

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH.

The reviewer (who uses a pseudonymon his site) was particularly interested in the real story vs. of the propaganda-inspired story of Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, the man credited with the AK-47’s design. Thus, this photograph, of another idealized Soviet-era Lenin bust. This one is in Minsk, Belarus, in a subway station beside October Square, and was photographed at dawn during the protests in bitterly cold weather against the rigged presidential election in March 2006.  Note the thick neck, strong features and general aura of strength. Busts, statuary and murals of this sort were a means by which Lenin — small, ill and arguably syphilitic — was presented to the proletariat as a robust man. The government of the U.S.S.R., like many governments, was adept at the manufacture of useful legends. And automatic rifles, too. Photo by the author.

“C.J. Chivers, a senior writer for The New York Times, former Moscow bureau chief, and onetime Marine Corps infantry captain, traces the history of the most notorious, widespread, and lethal firearm in the world. In his rich, engrossing, and comprehensive narrative, the author documents how the weapon has been used not as a killing tool but as a strategic and political instrument which has changed the rules of war and influenced security and development in large sections of the world as well. This is a fascinating book. The research is extraordinary and Chivers’ background as an officer in the Marine Corps provides the credibility to fully explain why and how this rifle with its stubby black barrel, dull brown stock, and distinctive banana clip has become one of the most frightening outputs of the Cold War. Vivid reportage by a journalist at the top of his game places this weapon in its historical context.”

                                     — from “Recommnended Books,” The Tucson Citizen.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHS

At top, a view from a firing position inside the former test range of the secret Cold War rifle assembly plant in Wiesa, Germany. The range was in the basement of a manufacturing complex that officially was making kitchen tools, or, as the local joke went, “very good coffee filters.”  At bottom, view of factory stamping of a 1975 AKM manufactured in Izhevsk, Russia. The rifle was one of several captured by American soldiers after the ambush of a Taliban patrol in Korengal* Valley in 2009. Note the perforation of the receiver caused by shrapnel. Also note its former owner’s decorative sling, in green, the color associated with Islam. Photos by the author.                 

*Korangal, by the style rules in The New York Times.

First things first. How old do you think the oldest rifles captured by American and Afghan troops in Afghanistan might be? Hint: much older then the Mosin-Nagant rifle, above, that was manufactured in Izhevsk, Russia near the end of the Great Patriotic War and turned up among rifles collected this year by Marines in Helmand Province. For a fuller answer to the question, and photos of a far older rifle, look for a post soon on At War at www.nytimes.com.

Now on to business. Today Tyler Hicks and I are thus far weathered in by a sand storm that has enveloped Zhari, Afghanistan in a tan-and-gray haze. This is not all bad. After completing the latest round of work on the WikiLeaks release and traveling here to work alongside an Army medevac unit, the grim weather offers a break to catch up to work.

I’ve fallen far behind with posts here and with keeping track of coverage of THE GUN. Here are a few items I missed: Reviews in The Los Angeles Times and The Winnipeg Free Press, and the posting on the Field & Stream site of answers to the Gun Nut Q & A from some weeks back.

From The L.A. Times:

‘The Gun’ is the author’s exhaustive history of the rifle’s origins, development and astonishing influence on global security… …Chivers brings experience and impressive firsthand scholarly research to bear on his subject.”

From The Winnipeg Free Press:

“The Gunis the gripping but chilling tale of “the most abundant firearms on Earth.” Author C.J. Chivers… …demonstrates admirable journalistic form in The Gun, conducting extensive interviews and documentary research. Throughout the book, Chivers makes technical information about guns and ammunition easily digestible, even fascinating.

“There is little moral superiority among most of the combatants in The Gun, though. Instead, ignorance, pigheaded romanticism and cruelty mark its fascinating review of the politics and weaponry of the U.S. Civil War, the First World War and Vietnam. Chivers is particularly strong in his section on Vietnam. Poorly educated peasants armed with AK-47s and fighting for their country drove out the most advanced army in the world, which had to make do with M-16 rifles that jammed and killed the soldiers using them. Some American forces resorted to using the much simpler and more reliable AK-47s that they seized in battle.

“Now how on earth can we get rid of this arsenal?”

And here is the full text of David Petzal’s post of the Q&A on THE GUN NUT. I can’t help but to second David’s suggestion: “…if you haven’t read The Gun yet, you should. The book would also make a great gift in any Gun Nut’s stocking this holiday.”

Also please note David’s characterization of Alexander Rose’s American Rifle: A Biography as a “must-read book for Gun Nuts.” Agreed.

Now that Tyler and I are in place in Zhari, and the weather has turned bad, this might allow me to complete several small pieces of writing in works. Look for the post this week on At War covering the most aged rifle I have seen yet in Afghanistan (and what it might tell us), and for another post reviewing Joshua Foust’s “Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net.” And more, as the pace and the sand storms allow.

(For those who noticed, please forgive the partial posting of this post a short while ago; the satellite connection burped and tossed a rough paragraph up onto the site alone. What you are reading now is the full post. It replaces the accident that landed here, on Facebook and on Twitter.)

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH

Close-up of a Mosin-Nagant rifle, bearing 1945 manufacturing stamps, from the Soviet gun works at Izhevsk. Note its hammer-and-sickle stamp above the chamber. The rifle, captured from the Taliban by the Marines in Marja this spring, was clean, lightly oiled and despite its 65 years was in excellent order. It likely had still been in active use, given its condition and the fact that its ammunition — 7.62x54R — remains in ready supply in rural Afghanistan. Photo by the author.

“Mr. Chivers… …writes both with technical precision and the humanity that comes with understanding the invariably unhappy and all too often horrific consequences of the weapon’s effects. All this makes for a delicate and at times fascinating balancing act, as Mr. Chivers the enthusiast and expert shares the page with Mr. Chivers the historian and journalist — the expert dealing well with the detailed mechanics of his subject, the journalist at other times brilliantly illuminating the book with highly effective vignettes of human courage, ingenuity and, mostly, suffering.”

“‘The Gun’ is a history of 10 pounds of wood and steel. Its strength is that it can’t but be a human history: the history of the men who designed and built, did or didn’t purchase, correctly or incorrectly deployed, and triumphed or perished by an inanimate object.”

Full review, here.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH

An Afghan police officer on honor guard duty, with a filthy Kalashnikov, in Herat, 2007. Photo by the author.

“C.J. Chivers sets out to ‘lift the Kalashnikov out of the simplistic and manipulated distillations of its history.’ In that he succeeds admirably by putting the gun into its social, historical and technological context in an evocative narrative.”

“A former Moscow bureau chief, Chivers had access to official sources in post-perestroika Russia and a deep understanding of the nature of the Soviet system, and he is a seasoned enough journalist not to swallow the party line on the AK-47 or anything else.”

“Through Soviet assistance programs and the construction of factories all over the world, the AK became the genie let out of the bottle. It went from a tool of Soviet state power to a tool of repression, terrorism, insurgency and crime. It became, as ably put by Chivers, ‘Everyman’s gun.’”

                                                   —The Washington Post.  (full review here.)

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH

An official Soviet portrait of Senior Sergeant Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, the man who Communist Party propaganda mills credited with designing the AK-47, his namesake rifle.