American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms

Following up on former U.S. Navy SEAL Kyle's best-selling 2012 autobiography, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, is this posthumously published work. Kyle, who was shot to death in February of this year, writes with Doyle (Inside the Oval Office) about ten of his favorite rifles and handguns, his aim: to "talk history with the bullets flying." Kyle was a consummate rifleman, but his discussions go beyond his ten selections to include reviews of peer firearms and descriptions of battles, shootouts, and people who made a particular gun famous. Writing for a popular audience, Kyle succeeds in vividly describing why he prefers, for example, the blunt force trauma of a .45 ACP Model 1911 over that of modern 9 mm pistols that hold twice as many cartridges. He discusses his views on why American rifles gave us an edge (apart from the Spanish American War when the Spanish bold-action Mausers outclassed the U.S. rifles). By World War I, U.S. troops were ready with Springfield bolt-action rifles. Kyle does not take on politics or gun control other than implicitly through his underlying belief in citizen ownership of firearms.