THE GUNS OF JOHN MOSES BROWNING

The first biography since the 1950s of the famed—and in some circles, infamous—gun-maker.

Gorenstein delivers a technically detailed life of John Moses Browning (1855-1926), a second-generation member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and second-generation gun manufacturer who found pleasure in inventing weapons. As a young boy, he built a working shotgun in his father’s shop, and he began sketching out plans for more advanced weapons. Years later, he noted, “a good idea starts a celebration of the mind, and every nerve in the body seems to crowd up to see the fireworks.” There were fireworks aplenty, as Browning developed repeating rifles, pump shotguns, and other armaments, licensing his patents to all the major manufacturers—Remington, Colt, Winchester, and so forth—and creating new designs by trial and error. Gorenstein takes a cataloger’s tone as he describes each new prototype and design. Of one early gas machine gun, he writes, “At forty-one inches long and a relatively modest thirty-five pounds, it had to be mounted on a tripod but remained far more portable than a hand-cranked Gatling gun, and it gave Colt a chance to compete in a market dominated by the Maxim gun.” The result is a text gun collectors and historians of armaments will cherish, though nonspecialists may get bogged down in such technical matters as the composition of a “locked breech system” for high-pressure weapons like Browning’s .45 pistol and automatic rifle. Gorenstein clearly demonstrates how most of the world’s guns, from the AK-47 to the latest Sig Sauer pistols, draw on Browning’s designs of more than a century ago, and he tallies many of the known assets of Browning’s estate and those of his heirs. However, he avoids reckoning with the human costs. “If there were going to be wars, there had to be guns,” he writes, “and Browning was going to give his country the best.”

A dense journey through an ocean of iron and blood best suited for gun enthusiasts.