9780465048953

0465048951

9780465098569

Americans have always loved guns. This special bond was forged during the American Revolution and sanctified by the Second Amendment. It is because of this exceptional relationship that American civilians are more heavily armed than the citizens of any other nation. Or so we're told. In The Gunning of America, historian Pamela Haag overturns this conventional wisdom. American gun culture, she argues, developed not because the gun was exceptional, but precisely because it was not: guns proliferated in America because throughout most of the nation's history, they were perceived as an unexceptional commodity, no different than buttons or typewriters. Focusing on the history of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, one of the most iconic arms manufacturers in America, Haag challenges many basic assumptions of how and when America became a gun culture. Under the leadership of Oliver Winchester and his heirs, the company used aggressive, sometimes ingenious sales and marketing techniques to create new markets for their product. Guns have never "sold themselves"; rather, through advertising and innovative distribution campaigns, the gun industry did. Through the meticulous examination of gun industry archives, Haag challenges the myth of a primal bond between Americans and their firearms. Over the course of its 150 year history, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company sold over 8 million guns. But Oliver Winchester - a shirtmaker in his previous career - had no apparent qualms about a life spent arming America. His daughter-in-law Sarah Winchester was a different story. Legend holds that Sarah was haunted by what she considered a vast blood fortune, and became convinced that the ghosts of rifle victims were haunting her. She channeled much of her inheritance, and her conflicted conscience, into a monstrous estate now known as the Winchester Mystery House, where she sought refuge from this ever-expanding army of phantoms. In this provocative and deeply-researched work of narrative history, Haag fundamentally revises the history of arms in America, and in so doing explodes the clichés that have created and sustained our lethal gun culture. -- Provided by publisher.

"An acclaimed historian explodes the myth about the 'special relationship' between Americans and their guns, revealing that savvy 19th century businessmen--not gun lovers--created American gun culture"-- Provided by publisher.

"The art and mystery of a gunsmith"

The American system

The Crystal Palace

"Scattering our guns"

"More wonderful than practical"

Model 186600

"Gun men" and the "Oriental lecturer"

"Spirit guns"

"The unhallowed trade"

The "moral effect" of a Winchester

Balancing the ledger

Summer land

The gun industry's visible hand

Learning to love the gun

Mystery house

"Grotesque, yet magnificent"

Overbuilding

The soul of the "gun crank"

King of Infinite Space

The West that won the gun

"Merchants of death."

Firearms > Social aspects > United States > History.

Firearms industry and trade > United States > History.

Capitalism > United States > History.

Firearms > Social aspects.

United States > Social conditions.

United States > Economic conditions.