"The Gun" AK 47 Book Review

[PappaGun]

Reading WSJ this morning there is a book review on a new book "The Gun", by CJ Chivers and written by Robert Kim.
It's a history of the AK-47.
As soon as I got to the second paragraph of the review where it says Chivers is "A Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the New York Times..." I was braced for NYT bias and all that would entail.
The last paragraph of the review says "Mr. Chivers focuses our attention on an ordinary item that has been vastly more destructive and done more to define the character of warfare than any other weapon."
I would suggest otherwise.
One interesting fact: There is one AK for every 70 people on the planet.
Actually, I am surprised there aren't more.
It sounds intersting, but when written by a NYT reporter, I think I would have a hard time getting through it.

Here's a link.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 68370.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[fannypacker]

I agree with you. Interesting gun and history but the bias would surely show through. I will pass.

[ChuckW]

I have not read the book either but I did hear the author being interviewed on the radio and he was actually quite reasonable and stuck to the facts. The reason that there are so many AK 47s he said is because rather than factories waiting for orders before producing guns, which is usually the case, various governments paid factories to continuing producing them virtually non-stop. He also talked about how, at distance, AK 47s are really not that accurate.

[A-R]

Thread already running here viewtopic.php?f=23&t=38708&hilit=+the+gun" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also take a moment to listen to the author speak in the NPR radio interview link I provided in the the other thread. He was a Marine before he was a NYT reporter and I think he has a bit more authority to speak about the AK-47 than your average libtard NYT reporter. From the interview, he seems much more even-handed. And let's face it, the AK-47 is responsible for more killing than probably any military weapon ever devised because it is so readily available and simple to use. 12 year olds kill 12 year olds in war-torn African pseudo countries all the time with these guns.

[PappaGun]

Thanks Austinrealtor. I missed that thread.

I am surprised the author has a job with the NYT.

[UpTheIrons]

Might I also suggest the following links? The author is a frequent blogger at the NYT blog "At War" and has given a good bit of fair reporting and press in the posts I've read, and some of them are absolutely fascinating. I've been reading them for a year or so, not just Chivers, but others, too.

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/ ... s-the-gun/

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/ ... t-the-gun/

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/author/cj-chivers/

I'll double post this in the other thread, too, so it gets wider play.