Expanded, Second Edition

Making its debut in 1935, the Browning High-Power was the world's most widely used military pistol for much of the 20th century. Military and law-enforcement agencies in more than 90 countries have issued the High-Power and it has seen combat in conflicts from World War II through to the 'War on Terror'. After conquering Belgium, Nazi Germany produced more than 300,000 High-Powers for use by the Waffen-SS, Fallschirmjäger and others, and after 1945 the High-Power became standard for most NATO-armed forces as well as scores of others. Chambered for the 9×19mm Luger cartridge, John Browning's High-Power improved on the classic Colt M1911 design, especially in its use of a far simpler takedown system. The pistol's innovative 13-round magazine, designed by Dieudonné Saive, staggered the cartridges for higher capacity without unduly increasing the grip size. During its 82-year production run at Fabrique Nationale (FN) in Belgium, the design evolved slightly, but a 2017 High-Power was still easily recognizable as a descendant of the original model. Packed with gripping material including detailed technical specifications, contemporary photographs and highly accurate artist's renditions, this title is a comprehensive and informative guide to the world's most iconic semi-automatic pistol.

There are only a few handguns in the past century that can equal the long term regard earned by the FN/Browning Hi-Power, or P-35, by its owners and users. First produced in 1935, and the result of the collaborative efforts of John M. Browning and Dieudonné Saive of Fabrique Nationale, the Hi-Power has been manufactured almost continually since then by FN in Belgium.Once the original Browning patents for this pistol had expired, manufacturers could produce the Hi-Power without legal ramifications. One of the foremost and most prolific of those producers was the Hungarian conglomerate of FÉG, which in 1971 developed the P9, one of the most faithful versions of the Browning design ever made in quantity outside the FN factories in Belgium and Portugal.Fully illustrated with over thirty detailed photographs.

In Fighting Handguns, author Jeff Cooper not only takes the reader through the development of this weapon from its beginnings in mid-16th-century Europe through the various iterations of single- and double-action revolvers and semiautomatic pistols, he also discusses some important aspects of carrying and shooting a fighting handgun under combat conditions. “For good or ill, man is a fighting animal. While most feel that this is an unmitigated evil, it may, like most aspects of nature, have its positive side. Certainly man’s combative nature is responsible for most of the massive tragedy of history, but it’s possible that history of any sort just wouldn’t have happened had it not been characteristic of the race to struggle against its environment. And man’s environment, of course, includes man. A placid, gentle, contented creature—a koala, for instance—is nice to contemplate but does not progress, and if it encounters a challenge it simply dies. Whether progress, at the price of a fighting disposition, is worth it is a question, but it’s a bit on the academic side. Man is the way he is, and gets along as he must. Being human, we are involved in strife. Much as we may deplore this, we must master the techniques of strife or perish. “This book is devoted to one of these techniques—the one-hand firearm as used by man against man.”—Jeff Cooper