Publisher's Synopsis
'Arming the World' tells the story of the American small arms industry from the early 1800's through the post-Civil War era. Almost from the beginning, the United States produced arms in new, and radically different, ways, relying upon machinery to mass produce guns when others still made them by hand. Leveraging their technological advantage, American gun-makers produced guns with interchangeable parts and perfected new types of small arms, ranging from revolvers to repeating rifles. The federal government's staggering purchases of arms during the Civil War stimulated the development of fast-firing breech- loading rifles and metal-cased ammunition. When, in 1865, it became clear that every country in the world had re-equip itself with modern weapons, the Americans had an overwhelming head start.
