More than 70 years after it was first published, this book is still one of the all-time classics on the art of military marksmanship, and is required reading at the U.S. Marine Corps Sniper School. The author grew up learning to shoot in the backwoods of Indiana, and went on to compete nationally as a sharpshooter. When World War I broke out in Europe, he was so eager to fight that he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Wounded seven times and finally invalided home after nearly two years on the front lines, he was an enthusiastic soldier and a superb sniper, with over 100 confirmed kills. His story of his time in the trenches includes frequent lessons on the mindset, the tactics, and the weapons of sniping, and has much hard-won advice about personal survival on the battlefield. It stands out as one of the best first-person accounts of World War I.

It all started because of a rifle. The Rifle is an inspirational story and hero’s journey of a 28-year-old U.S. Marine, Andrew Biggio, who returned home from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, full of questions about the price of war. He found answers from those who survived the costliest war of all -- WWII veterans. It began when Biggio bought a 1945 M1 Garand Rifle, the most common rifle used in WWII, to honor his great uncle, a U.S. Army soldier who died on the hills of the Italian countryside. When Biggio showed the gun to his neighbor, WWII veteran Corporal Joseph Drago, it unlocked memories Drago had kept unspoken for 50 years. On the spur of the moment, Biggio asked Drago to sign the rifle. Thus began this Marine’s mission to find as many WWII veterans as he could, get their signatures on the rifle, and document their stories. For two years, Biggio traveled across the country to interview America’s last-living WWII veterans. Each time he put the M1 Garand Rifle in their hands, their eyes lit up with memories triggered by holding the weapon that had been with them every step of the war. With each visit and every story told to Biggio, the veterans signed their names to the rifle. 96 signatures now cover that rifle, each a reminder of the price of war and the courage of our soldiers.

With modern military emphasis on whiz-bang weapons technology and the constant quest for things that make a bigger bang on the battlefield, it’s easy to forget that at the dark heart of war stands an infantryman and his individual weapons. Those who understand warfare from research or from personal experience generally realize this about the conflicts that have plagued mankind since the dawn of time. Infantry weapons—often referred to as small arms—have fascinated soldiers and scholars for decades as they are the most personal aspects of combat. Small arms come into play when contact is close and potentially lethal. This was particularly true during the long, frustrating war in Vietnam, but much of the focus in studying that conflict has been either on aerial weapons—strike aircraft or armed helicopters—or on the originally much-maligned M16 rifle. There were huge numbers of other weapons used by both sides, but they are often ignored and rarely seen being used in combat action. This book solves that problem. Divided into easily digestible sections and preceded by cogent discussions of each weapon type, the authors have presented an intriguing collection of photographs that depict the primary small (and not so small) infantry arms most common on Vietnam battlefields. There are rare and stirring images here that depict what it was like to fight in the jungle-covered mountains and in the rice paddies. Viewing these images is like studying a primer about one of America’s longest and deadliest wars. "We have a new generation of combat veterans among us these days. Men and women who carried a new generation of weapons to war into places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, who have returned with a fresh understanding about the crucial importance of small arms in warfare. They understand...that there is no strategy or tactic that equals victory in armed conflict if it does not include that muddy, grimy, dog-tired infantryman with just his personal weapon to help him survive in a life-and-death encounter." – American Rifleman "It’s an excellent book for anyone with an interest in the details of 20th-century infantry weapons, especially historians and collectors." – Booksmith

The Marine Corps began World War II with less than 66,000 officers and men. Yet despite suffering 10 per cent of the overall American casualties, the Marines were able to build on their proud traditions and history to transform a small branch of service into a premier combined arms amphibious assault force. Regardless of its expansion by 750 percent, the Corps was able to maintain its sense of tradition, instill that into thousands of new Marines, and create an elite arm of service. In this book, Gordon Rottman, follows a Marine Corps rifleman through his draft, training and participation in assaults such as: Roi-Namur in the Marshall Islands, Saipan and Tinian in the Mariana Islands, and Iwo Jima.

Presents the history of how the Nazi regime used laws restricting firearms ownership to disarm and repress its enemies and consolidate power which rendered political opponents defenseless.

George Washington insisted that his portrait be painted with one. Daniel Boone created a legend with one. Abraham Lincoln shot them on the White House lawn. And Teddy Roosevelt had his specially customized. In this first-of-its-kind book, historian Alexander Rose delivers a colorful, engrossing biography of an American icon: the rifle. Drawing on the words of foot soldiers, inventors, and presidents, based on extensive new research, and spanning from the Revolution to the present day, American Rifle is a balanced, wonderfully entertaining history of the rifle and its place in American culture.