The impact of the Industrial Revolution that took place mostly in the nineteenth century was seen most dramatically on the world’s battlefields. Up through the Napoleonic wars, armies faced off against each other armed mostly with muzzle-loaded muskets which the average soldier could load and fire no more than three times per minute. One hundred years later, the fields of Europe were turned into a bloody quagmire of broken bodies, due in large part to advances in the weapons the soldiers carried. Much of these advances came from across the Atlantic where a whole slew of inventors, manufacturers and innovators sought to create and market weapons that could fire multiple rounds between reloads. Many of these entrepreneurs have names familiar to us even today: Colt, Spencer, Henry, Smith, Wesson, and Winchester.

Bainbridge’s research into the lives of these men is impressive, but less thrilling than one would expect for this subject. They all participated in many battles, but their battlefields were the courtrooms as they fought against each other to defend their patents. When we picture a handgun today, it’s difficult to imagine that each consists of at least a dozen patented innovations, from the rotating cylinder to metal-cased cartridges, all designed by men determined to own the exclusive right to build and sell the world’s finest weapons. This was not a group known for playing well together.

War has ever been the friend of arms merchants, and such was the case with the American Civil War. Some patents expired and in other cases, parties reached compromises beneficial to all concerned and the business of selling weapons to the government made tycoons out of many of them. When the war ended, many were left with stockpiles of weapons that they ultimately sold to other countries so that they could wage their wars.

It’s at this point where I began to have difficulty in seeing these people as inventors and businessmen that Bainbridge portrayed them as and began to see them in a much more diabolical light. Whatever their intentions were, they were in a business that could thrive only in time of war or conflict. Is it even possible to engage in such a business and still promote peace? (FYI: These musings are my own and are not reflected in the book’s text.)

Bottom line: This is a well-researched history into the lives of those whose industry has an impact at least as powerful today as it did when they lived. It is to everyone’s benefit that this information is available. As Bainbridge points out.
“The names Colt, Winchester, Remington, and Smith & Wesson endure today as company identifiers, each calling up visions of earlier eras and individual Americans whose old-fashioned pluck and Yankee ingenuity drove them to make their marks for country and what they saw as progress.”

* The review book was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
• 5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
• 4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
• 3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered good or memorable.
• 2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
• 1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire. ( )

The men in America didn't care for the monopoly held by Europe for the manufacture of muskets and other firearms needed to survive in the wilderness, so a number of them became inventors who changed the history of firearms (and warfare) forever. The personal lives of the nineteenth century men whose names became synonymous with firearms is meticulously detailed, as are the prevailing politics of their time. As one who is more familiar with the Brown Bess musket and cannons of the eighteenth century, I wanted pictures to understand all the differences between each inventor's weapons and the progressive modifications. But this was a very interesting read.
I requested and received a free e-book copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )