At a secret arms-design contest in Stalin.s Soviet Union, army technicians
submitted a stubby rifle with a curved magazine. Dubbed the AK-47, it was
selected as the Eastern Bloc.s standard arm. Scoffed at in the Pentagon as
crude and unimpressive, it was in fact a breakthrough.a compact automatic
that could be mastered by almost anyone, last decades in the field, and
would rarely jam. Manufactured by tens of millions in planned economies,
it became first an instrument of repression and then the most lethal
weapon of the Cold War. Soon it was in the hands of terrorists. In a
searing examination of modern conflict and official folly, C.J. Chivers
mixes meticulous historical research, investigative reporting, and
battlefield reportage to illuminate the origins of the world.s most
abundant firearm and the consequences of its spread. The result, a tour
de force of history and storytelling, sweeps through the miniaturization
and distribution of automatic firepower, an...

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