Disappointing considering how much I like Chivers' reporting in the Ny Times and his blog. Uneven style and recurring redundencies. Could have been much shorter. Tying the central theme to the AK47 is a stretch and works better as a general history of the automatic rifle. The sections on the development and commercialization of the Gatling, Maxim and M-16 are great, though. ( )

The best researched book about AK47 I have ever read, including a very comprehensive context for its development with a quite lengthy history of guns in general and the interaction between the military and people making guns. It also covers the M16 debacle, even though it's not the main subject of the book). ( )

The AK47 was first manufactured way back in the early 1950's and some of these very early models are still in use. It is a gun that has been used by armies, revolutionaries, hoodlums and criminals. It's simple construction gives it a robustness and longevity that mean that these weapons will be around for a long time to come.

In the biography of the gun, and the man Kalashnikov who invented it, Chivers takes us through the murky world of the arms industry, and Soviet cold war secrets. Form how the initial concept was conceived and developed to the modern iterations of the weapon. Along the way he writes about the times these guns have been seen by the public, normally some terrorist atrocity, and the history of arms that lead to the lightweight sub machine gun.

The history and anecdotes about this are fairly interesting, but in there is 200 pages of history about the earlier guns such as the Gatling, and a lot of the failure of the M-16 in battle. Interesting in its own way, and necessary to set the context, but it is half the book. ( )

An excellent over view of the people and the situation behind the making of the AK-47. Very interesting read for anyone that cares to learn more about the rifle. ( )

detailed, balanced, great insight, great slice of history. ( )