Great Guns

Traces the history and development of firearms and provides detailed information and numerous illustrations of some of the most significant rifles, handguns, and smoothbores.

An encyclopedic look at firearms.

This is the best and most comprehensive guide for those new to the world of fine guns, and a standard reference for everyone, written with the precision and the seamless grace that is a Michael McIntosh's trademark style.

From Steve Israel, the Congressman-turned-novelist who writes “in the full-tilt style of Carl Hiaasen” (The Washington Post), a comic tale of the mighty firearm industry, a small Long Island town, and Washington politics: “Congress should pass a law making Big Guns mandatory reading for themselves” (Nelson DeMille). When Chicago’s Mayor Michael Rodriguez starts a national campaign to ban handguns from America’s cities, towns, and villages, Otis Cogsworth, the wealthy chairman and CEO of a huge arms company in Asabogue, Long Island, is worried. In response, he and lobbyist Sunny McCarthy convince an Arkansas congressman to introduce federal legislation mandating that every American must own a firearm. Events soon escalate. Asabogue’s Mayor Lois Leibowitz passes an ordinance to ban guns in the town—right in Otis Cogsworth’s backyard. Otis retaliates by orchestrating a recall election against Lois and Jack Steele, a rich town resident, runs against her. Even though the election is for the mayor of a small village on Long Island, Steele brings in the big guns of American politics to defeat Lois. Soon, thousands of pro-gun and anti-gun partisans descend on Asabogue, and the bucolic town becomes a tinderbox. Meanwhile, Washington politicians in both parties are caught between a mighty gun lobby and the absurdity of requiring that every American, with waivers for children under age four, carry a gun. What ensues is a discomfiting, hilarious indictment of the state of American politics. “New York congressman-turned-novelist Steve Israel delivers a second brilliant political satire” (Booklist, starred review). “An entertaining satire” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Big Guns is “a wonderfully irreverent satire about the fractured and fractious American political and lobbying system…a rollicking comedic trip” (Publishers Weekly).

"Air Service Boys in the Big Battle; Or, Silencing the Big Guns" by Charles Amory Beach. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

A concise, illustrated introduction to artillery from medieval times to the modern era. Over seven centuries, the artillery piece has evolved from a status symbol to one of the most deadly weapons wielded by man. Using gunpowder weapons was initially something of a black art, but over time, gunnery became a science, a dependable method of breaching fortifications or overcoming an enemy on the battlefield. By the nineteenth century, most European armies had artillery units manned with trained gunners; Napoleon, originally an artillery officer, then took the use of artillery to a new level. Over the following decades, rapid advances in gun technology paved the way for the devastatingly powerful heavy artillery that literally transformed the landscape during World War I. The use of rolling and box barrages shaped how armies fought on the front lines, and powerful naval guns dictated the outcome of battles at sea. By World War II, the range of artillery had expanded to include self-propelled guns and powerful antitank and antiaircraft guns. In this informative introduction, historian Angus Konstam concisely explains how the development and evolving deployment of artillery led to big guns becoming the key to victory in two world wars and a potent force on the modern battlefield.