A provocative look at the life and times of the man who created the original weapon of mass destruction
Drawing on her investigative and literary talents, Julia Keller offers a riveting account of the invention of the world's first working machine gun. Through her portrait of its misunderstood creator, Richard Jordan Gatling-who naively hoped that the overwhelming effectiveness of a multiple-firing weapon would save lives by decreasing the size of armies and reducing the number of soldiers needed to fight-Keller draws profound parallels to the scientists who would unleash America's atomic arsenal half a century later. The Gatling gun, in its combination of ingenuity, idealism, and destructive power, perfectly exemplifies the paradox of America's rise in the nineteenth century to a world superpower.
- ISBN10 0670018945
- ISBN13 9780670018949
- Publish Date 1 June 2008 (first published 29 May 2008)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 3 April 2013
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Viking Books
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 294
- Language English