Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture

How and when did Americans develop their obsession with guns? Is gun-related violence so deeply embedded in American historical experience as to be immutable? The accepted answers to these questions are ''mythology,'' says Michael A. Bellesiles.Basing his arguments on sound and prodigious research, Bellesiles makes it clear that gun ownership was the exception--even on the frontier--until the age of industrialization. In Colonial America the average citizen had virtually no access to or training in the use of firearms, and the few guns that did exist were kept under strict control. No guns were made in America until after the Revolution, and there were few gunsmiths to keep them in repair.Bellesiles shows that the U.S. government, almost from its inception, worked to arm its citizens, but it met only public indifference and resistance until the 1850s, when technological advances--such as repeating revolvers with self-contained bullets--contributed to a surge in gun manufacturing. Finally, we see how the soaring gun production engendered by the Civil War, and the decision to allow soldiers to keep their weapons at the end of the conflict, transformed the gun from a seldom-needed tool to a perceived necessity--opposing ideas that are still at the center of the fight for and against gun control today.Michael A. Bellesiles's research set off a chain of passionate reaction after its publication in the Journal of American History in 1996, and Arming America is certain to be one of the most controversial and widely read books on the subject.

History

Bellesiles, Michael A.

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Diane Pub Co.

In this revisionary look at the eighteenth-century frontier, Michael A. Bellesiles shows us that more than a legendary Revolutionary War hero, Ethan Allen was the leader of a group of frontier subsistence farmers united in their opposition to New York elites and land speculators; the independence Allen and his followers fought for was as much from eastern elites as it was from the British crown. But what makes the story of the Green Mountain frontier so remarkable is that the settlers won.
Revolutionary Outlaws is both a biography of Ethan Allen and a social history of the conflict between agrarian commoners and their wealthy adversaries. It explores the roots of popular political commitment to the patriot cause, the significance of rural crowd activity, the character of popular religious culture and dissent, and the origins and structures of an emerging democratic polity.

Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Univ of Virginia Pr

In A People’s History of the U.S. Military, historian Michael A. Bellesiles draws from three centuries of soldiers’ personal encounters with combatthrough fascinating excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, as well as audio recordings, film, and blogsto capture the essence of the American military experience firsthand, from the American Revolution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Military service can shatter and give meaning to lives; it is rarely a neutral encounter, and has contributed to a rich outpouring of personal testimony from the men and women who have literally placed their lives on the line. The often dramatic and always richly textured first-person accounts collected in this book cover a wide range of perspectives, from ardent patriots to disillusioned cynics; barely literate farm boys to urbane college graduates; scions of founding families to recent immigrants, enthusiasts, and dissenters; women disguising themselves as men in order to serve their country to African Americans fighting for their freedom through military service. A work of great relevance and immediacyas the nation grapples with the return of thousands of men and women from active military dutyA People’s History of the U.S. Military will become a major new touchstone for our understanding of American military service.

A People's History of the U.S. Military

The New Press

1877 was the year many Americans wanted to forget. In the messy aftermath of the Civil War, economic depression, white supremacy, labor unrest, and a factionalized political system produced a period of unprecedented violence and upheaval in American life. This "solid, deeply informed history" (Publishers Weekly) brilliantly recaptures this tumultuous time, revealing that the fires of that pivotal year also fueled a hothouse of cultural and intellectual innovation. Best of all, historian Michael A. Bellesiles tells the story of 1877 not just through dramatic events, but also through the lives of famous and little-known Americans alike: Mark Twain, Crazy Horse, Susan B. Anthony; the detective Allan Pinkerton and President Rutherford B.Hayes; the black poet Albery Allson Whitman and the pioneer in women's health issues Mary Putman Jacobi; Ida B. Wells; and Billy the kid. 1877's account of America at the dawn of its modern era will forever alter our understanding of the forces that shape our politics, our culture, and our national identity.

1877: America's Year of Living Violently

Americas

Military service can shatter or give meaning to lives–it is rarely a neutral encounter—and it has resulted in a rich outpouring of personal testimony from the men and women who have literally placed their lives on the line. A real’ love letter to our military [that] will prove enlightening, even galvanizing” (Dissent), A People’s History of the U.S. Military tells the captivating narratives of common soldiers, sampled from over three centuries of letters, diaries, and memoirs as well as audio recordings, films, and blogs. The often dramatic, sometimes very raw, and always richly textured first–person accounts collected in this book cover a wide range of perspectives, from ardent patriots to disillusioned cynics, barely literate farm boys to urbane college graduates, scions of founding families to recent immigrants, and women disguising themselves as men in order to serve their country to African Americans fighting for their freedom through military service. Praised as compact and complete” (Booklist), an excellent educational tool” (Publishers Weekly), and a useful, unsettling, bottom–up history of America’s wars that emphasizes the soldiers’ mistreatment, suffering, and injustice” (Kirkus Reviews), A People’s History of the U.S. Military has already become a major new touchstone for our understanding of American military service.

A People's History of the U.S. Military: Ordinary Soldiers Reflect on Their Experience of War, from the American Revolution to Afghanistan (New Press People's History)

Leaders & Notable People

Inventing Equality: Reconstructing the Constitution in the Aftermath of the Civil War

Africa

Tantor Media, Inc.

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Books by Bellesiles, Michael A.