Arming America : the origins of a national gun culture / Michael A. Bellesiles

Includes bibliographical references and index

In search of guns -- European gun heritage -- Role of guns in the conquest of North America -- Guns in the daily life of colonial America -- Creation of the first American gun culture : Indians and firearms -- Brown Bess in the wilderness -- People numerous and unarmed -- Government promotion of gun production -- From indifference to disdain -- Creation of a gun subculture -- Arming of the American people.

In the current debate over the role of guns in American life, there is one historical notion in particular that invigorates those who believe that an America stocked to the rafters with privately held firearms is the best and truest America. In Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture, Emory University historian Michael A. Bellesiles leaps to the forefront of a recent move by scholars toward reexamining this mythology of the gun. To every article of the legend, Bellesiles mounts a relentless and eye-opening barrage of counterevidence, gathered over ten years of research in probate records, censuses, government and military documents, and other primary sources.

English