The author, a New York Times reporter, traces the invention and mass distribution of the AK-47 assault rifle, and its effects on war. He traces the invention of the assault rifle, following the miniaturization of rapid-fire arms from the American Civil War, through World War I and Vietnam, to present-day Afghanistan, where Kalashnikovs and their knockoffs number as many as 100 million, one for every seventy persons on earth. It is the weapon of state repression, as well as revolution, civil war, genocide, drug wars, and religious wars; and it is the arms of terrorists, guerrillas, boy soldiers, and thugs. From its inception to its use by more than fifty national armies around the world, to its role in modern-day Afghanistan, he discusses how the deadly weapon has helped alter world history.

"The thesis evolved into the first "biographical-history" of General Thompson and the submachine gun that was published by the Macmillan Company as The Gun That Made The Twenties Roar. It received favorable reviews in Newsweek, The Washington Post's book section, and more than a dozen newspapers that had book columns at the time. (A few years later a photocopied edition of the original book was printed by Gun Room Press to accompany a longer-barreled semi-automatic version Thompson then being marketed by Numrich Arms, and it included an additional chapter on the Numrich gun by George Nonte that is not included in this second edition.)Since then any number of books and articles have retold the Thompson story, but the only one that greatly expands on this edition, especially in manufacturing details, is The Ultimate Thompson Book, published in 2009 by Tracie Hill, founder of The American Thompson Association. I want to thank Tracie for most of the additional photos that appear in this edition. I also want to thank David Albert, former president of TATA, for putting me in touch with Chipotle Publishing Company which presents this second edition, one hundred years after the founding of the Auto-Ordnance Corporation. It is expanded with "boxes" and an additional chapter that updates the original book that was published in 1969."

The first full-length biography of Frank Hamer whose extraordinary career as a Texas Ranger made him one of the West's most legendary lawmen.

How would you treat a murderer? If you’re from Hollywood and he’s notorious, you might turn him into a folk hero. Separate the facts from the many legends and revisions that have blossomed around these killers in this frightening look at the bloody real lives of movie’s infamous antiheroes. You’ll find a blood-curdling assortment of the “criminal elite” in American Murder: Criminals, Crime and the Media, a rogue’s gallery of our most famous killings, killers and other scoundrels (and some that ought to be more famous than they are). A collection of high-profile murderers, gangsters, assassins, psychopaths, such as O.J., Amy Fisher, Robert Blake, Susan Smith, Claus Von Bulow, the Menendez brothers, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Speck, Al Capone, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bugsy Siegel, Jesse James, John Dillinger, Charles Manson, Albert Fish, T. Cullen Davis, Ronald DeFeo, Jr., Edmund Kemper, Beulah Annan, Bonnie and Clyde, Billy the Kid, Charlie Starkweather, as well as an assortment of lesser known killers with some incredible tales! With numerous photos and illustrations, this tome is richly illustrated, and its helpful bibliography and extensive index add to its usefulness. American Murderexplores the legends as depicted in movies, stories, and songs. You’d not want to meet any of them in person – either the real or Hollywood versions!