By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
 
A book entitled "American Rifle: A Biography" (Delacorte Press, 512 pages, $30) would appear on the surface to be of interest only to gun owners and collectors, commonly derided as "gun nuts." But Alexander Rose's very readable history of military firearms from colonial days to the present is much more than that because it tells of the importance of firearms in military tactics and the rise of America as a manufacturing powerhouse.
 
       Rose, a military historian and former journalist ("Washington's Spies," "Kings in the North") begins his account with the famed "Kentucky Rifle" -- actually designed and manufactured by German immigrants in Pennsylvania.  It was the rifle of choice of the frontier and was much superior to the smooth bore muskets used by the British Army in the Revolution.  Americans used different tactics, emphasizing long-distance marksmanship of the kind used in fighting Indians in contrast to the rigid drill patterns of the British.
 
       From the beginning of the nation, firearms were in the vanguard of advanced manufacturing techniques, since the machines that produced guns were readily adaptable to other forms of mass production, Rose tells us.  Gun making machines led to sewing machines, typewriters, appliances, bicycles and motor vehicle mass production, producing high quality products that were in demand throughout the world.
 
       Names familiar to gun enthusiasts--Colt, Smith and Wesson, Remington, Winchester, James P. Lee (of Lee-Enfield fame),  John C. Garand (who designed the M1 rifle used in World War II and Korea) -- are included, along with others who were important but not so well known.
 
       The Kentucky Rifle was a muzzle loader, with black powder and a bullet charged from the muzzle, tamped down with a ramrod. Later developments included breech loading and metallic cartridges, derived from--of all things--the canning industry. Repeaters like the Sharps and Henry rifles (the name derives from the German verb "rifeln" to cut or groove) and such classics as the Winchester 1873 and the Springfield Model 1903 in time replaced the muzzle-loaders.
 
There was often resistance to new designs, with Army Ordnance officials all too often quickly rejecting new designs, including smokeless powder invented by the French.  There was a "not invented here" attitude on the part of arsenal officials, but many innovations came from private inventors like Scots-born Lee, whose repeater rifle was rejected by the Army.  He took it to the British where it evolved into the Lee-Enfield .308 rifle, the standard British Army rifle for many decades.
 
       American presidents from George Washington on were often gun nuts. Washington had his portrait painted with a gun and Abraham Lincoln practiced target shooting on the White House lawn.  Theodore Roosevelt so loved the Springfield Model 1903 -- adopted as the official Army rifle during his administration--that he used one on his big game hunting treks.
 
        The Army rifle immediately preceding the Model 1903, the Krag-Jorgensen, was a Norwegian design, but ordnance officials were highly resistant to foreign guns like the beautifully designed and constructed German Mauser, which was adopted by many armed forces. Military rifles influenced the design of civilian rifles and vice versa, in many cases.
 
       The M1 was followed by the M14 and M16 and later by the M4, currently in use.  Rose recounts the teething problems of the M16, which required cleaning to prevent misfires and jams, in Vietnam and later in Iraq.
 
       Rose includes an excellent index, notes and plenty of photographs, but his extensive bibliography--running to 40 or more pages--was left out of the printed book.  It's available in PDF form on his web site, www.alexrose.com.
 
        I can't think of a better holiday present for a "gun nut" or history buff than "American Rifle."  The book is extensively and exhaustively researched, but Rose's conversational, journalistic (in the best sense) writing style makes it a book you don't want to end.