American Gun: The True Story of the Ar-15 -- Cameron McWhirter, Hardcover

Named a most anticipated book of the fall by The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times

American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 presents the epic history of America's most controversial weapon.

In the 1950s, an obsessive firearms designer named Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15 rifle in a California garage. High-minded and patriotic, Stoner sought to devise a lightweight, easy-to-use weapon that could replace the M1s touted by soldiers in World War II. What he did create was a lethal handheld icon of the American century.

In American Gun, the veteran Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson track the AR-15 from inception to ubiquity. How did the same gun represent the essence of freedom to millions of Americans and the essence of evil to millions more? To answer this question, McWhirter and Elinson follow Stoner--the American Kalashnikov--as he struggled mightily to win support for his invention, which under the name M16 would become standard equipment in Vietnam. Shunned by gun owners at first, the rifle's popularity would take off thanks to a renegade band of small-time gun makers. And in the 2000s, it would become the weapon of choice for mass shooters, prompting widespread calls for proscription even as the gun industry embraced it as a financial savior. Writing with fairness and compassion, McWhirter and Elinson explore America's gun culture, revealing the deep appeal of the AR-15, the awful havoc it wreaks, and the politics of reducing its toll. The result is a moral history of contemporary America's love affair with technology, freedom, and weaponry.

Includes 8 pages of black-and-white images.

Author: Cameron McWhirter, Zusha Elinson
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 09/26/2023
Pages: 496
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.56lbs
Size: 9.35h x 6.30w x 1.60d
ISBN: 9780374103859

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 04/01/2023 pg. 13
Publishers Weekly 06/19/2023
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2023
Booklist 08/01/2023 pg. 16

About the Author
Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson are reporters for The Wall Street Journal, where they cover America's gun culture and industry. McWhirter is the author of Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America. Based in Atlanta, he has also written for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Detroit News, and Harvard Review, among other publications. Elinson is based in Northern California. Together, the authors received a MacDowell Fellowship to complete this book.