Focusing on the day-to-day operations of the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, from 1798 to 1861, this book shows what the "new technology" of mechanized production meant in terms of organization, management, and worker morale. A local study of much more than local significance, it highlights the major problems of technical innovation and social adaptation in antebellum America. Merritt Roe Smith describes how positions of authority at the armory...

"An urgent look at the relationship between the politics of guns, race, and policing in America today"--

Pistols and revolvers, rifles and shotguns, military and commercials arms -- read featured stories, compiled from 67 years of Gun Digest archives.

An eleven-year-old shoots a stray cat with his new air rifle, subsequently suffers from guilt, and eventually assumes responsibility for it.

Jerry has to do one last errand for the mob before they let him find employment elsewhere -- he has to go to Mexico and recover a rare and very valuable pistol "The Mexican", which is said to be cursed. While his girlfriend, Samantha, objects to Jerry taking the assignment, he isn't in much of a position to argue. Once in Mexico, Jerry finds the pistol easily enough, but making his way back to the States proves to be an unexpected challenge. Meanwhile,...

"The numbers are staggering: Over the past twenty years in Chicago, 14,033 people have been killed and another roughly 60,000 wounded by gunfire. What does that do to the spirit of individuals and communities? Drawing on his decades of experience, Alex Kotlowitz set out to chronicle one summer in the city, writing of those who have emerged from the violence and whose stories reveal the capacity--and the breaking point--of the human heart and soul....

In Gun Digest Guide to Maintaining & Accessorizing Firearms, gunsmith Kevin Muramatsu answers the most common questions he gets from gun owners about caring for and upgrading their firearms:How much more stuff do I have to buy to maintain and clean my new firearm?How do I make it more personalized to me, or more effective as a tool?What if something breaks?With an enteraining and user-friendly DIY format, this book provides the basic steps that every...

In this dual biography, McMurtry explores the lives, the legends, and above all the truth about two larger-than-life American figures. With his Wild West show, Buffalo Bill Cody helped invent the image of the West that still exists today--cowboys and Indians, rodeo, rough rides, sheriffs and outlaws, trick shooting, Stetsons, and buck-skin. His most celebrated protégée, the short, slight Annie Oakley--born Phoebe Ann Moses in Ohio--spent sixteen...

"On the American frontier, every gun tells a story. A boy in Texas waits for a Christmas present he chose from a Montgomery Ward catalog. The present, a brand new, lever action Winchester 1886 and a box of its big .50-caliber slugs, never makes it there. Instead, the rifle is caught up in a train robbery and starts a long and violent journey of its own--from the hands of a notorious, kill-crazy outlaw to an Apache renegade to a hardscrabble rancher...