The Gun

Add to My Reading List

C. J. Chivers

Simon & Schuster, New York, 2010, English

Nonfiction, Product/Industrial Design

9.4 x 6.3 inches, hardcover, 496 pages

ISBN: 9780743271738

Suggested Retail Price: $28.00

From the Publisher. C. J. Chivers mixes meticulous historical research, investigative reporting, and battlefield reportage to illuminate the origins of the world’s most abundant firearm and the consequences of its spread. The result, a tour de force of history and storytelling, sweeps through the miniaturization and distribution of automatic firepower, and puts an iconic object in fuller context than ever before. Throughout, The Gun animates unforgettable characters—inventors, salesmen, heroes, megalomaniacs, racists, dictators, gunrunners, terrorists, child soldiers, government careerists, and fools. Drawing from years of research, interviews, and from declassified records revealed for the first time, he presents a richly human account of an evolution in the very experience of war.

On 2 book lists

Phil Patton

On Phil Patton’s Current Reading list

—January 2012.

Alice Rawsthorn

On Alice Rawsthorn’s Book List

The Gun is one of those books whose author did not intend to write about design, but ended up doing so by happy accident, because it turned out to be inseparable from his or her chosen theme. The author of this book, C. J. Chivers, a former infantry officer in the U.S. Marines turned Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent for the New York Times, set out to show how the course of history has been determined by the merits of various firearms from the Gatling Gun onward, and by the deadly Soviet assault rifle, the AK-47, in particular.

In doing so, he produced one of the best books on product design I have ever read. As well as depicting the picaresque characters—the chancers, desperados, and crooks—who have invented guns through the centuries, Chivers unpacks the mythology of the AK-47’s “invention” in the 1940s by the wounded Soviet tank sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov. He also delivers an adroit analysis of “good” design in the AK-47, and “bad” in its flawed U.S. equivalent, the Colt M-16.

comments powered by Disqus

Announcements

If Walls Could Speak: My Life in Architecture by Moshe Safdie

If Walls Could Speak: My Life in Architecture

By Moshe Safdie
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
Published: September 2022

One of the world’s greatest and most thoughtful architects recounts his extraordinary career and the iconic structures he has built—from Habitat in Montreal to Marina Bay Sands in Singapore—and offers a manifesto for the role architecture should play in society.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP: by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

Order the book.

Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman

Women Holding Things

By Maira Kalman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: October 2022

In the spring of 2021, Maira and Alex Kalman created a small, limited-edition booklet, “Women Holding Things,” which featured select recent paintings by Maira, accompanied by her insightful and deeply personal commentary. The booklet quickly sold out. Now, the Kalmans have expanded that original publication into an extraordinary visual compendium. We see a woman hold a book, hold shears, hold children, hold a grudge, hold up, hold her own. In visually telling their stories, Kalman lays bare the essence of women’s lives—their tenacity, courage, vulnerability, hope, and pain.

Order the book.