Obvious what the book is about from the title, and it certainly delivers. A thoroughly researched account of the key characters in the development of those iconic weapons that even those of us who have zero interest in guns will have heard of even if we don’t necessarily understand the technology behind them. It’s a fascinating book, even if I personally found it somewhat rambling and repetitive – just how many bankruptcies and how much business rivalry can hold our attention? But it’s an important read, giving a background to America’s obsession with guns, and certainly anyone one interested in the technical details will find much to salivate over here.

Learning about the men behind the weapons teaches us about the hows and whys things happen and the evolution of weaponry. This book focuses on the gunsmiths of the 1830s to the 1870s. The book explains the men behind the designs and what they went through to get to their level with the collaboration, interactions, and lawsuits. It's an interesting read for the historical aspect of guns.

Interesting history. But for my taste a little too much detail on the business end of things. One gets weary of reading about who went bankrupt when.

Much more detail on how the individual guns worked, including diagrams, would have been welcome.

Oh, and look up where the Crimean War took place.

This is a history of the people behind the names. We learn about inventions, improvements, finances, families, failures and successes. It is an interesting read. I read an electronic copy for reviewing purposes courtesy of Net Galley.

A well researched look at the men who created some of the best known guns -- Colt, etc. Clearly the author did his research, and those who are interested in this subject will want to read this book. It's a little slow, but if this is your interest, it does fill in the history of the times and the history of the design and manufacture of well known guns -- Colt, Smith & Wesson, Remington. Historical context and the impact of the industry is covered. For my taste, I didn't find it particularly captivating, but my husband like it.

The impact of the Industrial Revolution that took place mostly in the nineteenth century was seen most dramatically on the world’s battlefields. Up through the Napoleonic wars, armies faced off against each other armed mostly with muzzle-loaded muskets which the average soldier could load and fire no more than three times per minute. One hundred years later, the fields of Europe were turned into a bloody quagmire of broken bodies, due in large part to advances in the weapons the soldiers carried. Much of these advances came from across the Atlantic where a whole slew of inventors, manufacturers and innovators sought to create and market weapons that could fire multiple rounds between reloads. Many of these entrepreneurs have names familiar to us even today: Colt, Spencer, Henry, Smith, Wesson, and Winchester.
Bainbridge’s research into the lives of these men is impressive, but less thrilling than one would expect for this subject. They all participated in many battles, but their battlefields were the courtrooms as they fought against each other to defend their patents. When we picture a handgun today, it’s difficult to imagine that each consists of at least a dozen patented innovations, from the rotating cylinder to metal-cased cartridges, all designed by men determined to own the exclusive right to build and sell the world’s finest weapons. This was not a group known for playing well together.
War has ever been the friend of arms merchants, and such was the case with the American Civil War. Some patents expired and in other cases, parties reached compromises beneficial to all concerned and the business of selling weapons to the government made tycoons out of many of them. When the war ended, many were left with stockpiles of weapons that they ultimately sold to other countries so that they could wage their wars.
It’s at this point where I began to have difficulty in seeing these people as inventors and businessmen that Bainbridge portrayed them as and began to see them in a much more diabolical light. Whatever their intentions were, they were in a business that could thrive only in time of war or conflict. Is it even possible to engage in such a business and still promote peace? (FYI: These musings are my own and are not reflected in the book’s text.)
Bottom line: This is a well-researched history into the lives of those whose industry has an impact at least as powerful today as it did when they lived. It is to everyone’s benefit that this information is available. As Bainbridge points out.

“The names Colt, Winchester, Remington, and Smith & Wesson endure today as company identifiers, each calling up visions of earlier eras and individual Americans whose old-fashioned pluck and Yankee ingenuity drove them to make their marks for country and what they saw as progress.”

* The review book was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.

FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:
• 5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
• 4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.
• 3 Stars – A solid <i>C</i> grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered <i>good</i> or <i>memorable</i>.
• 2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending.
• 1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.

“They say God created all men, but Samuel Colt made them equal.” This saying originated in the American West, testimony to the impact repeating firearms had in nineteenth-century America. Samuel Colt, known for the Colt revolver, may be the best-known gun maker in the United States. In the nineteenth century, he was one among many firearms pioneers.

“Gun Barons: The Weapons That Transformed America and the Men Who Invented Them,” by John Bainbridge, Jr. tells the story of the men who brought repeating firearms to market, and the companies they started. They included Christian Sharps, Benjamin Henry, Oliver Winchester, Horace Smith, and Daniel Wesson.

All founded companies to manufacture firearms. A few disappeared. Others, including Colt and Smith and Wesson, still exist. This book’s emphasis is on their histories during their birth century, the period between the late 1830s and 1898.

Bainbridge starts with the origin story; Samuel Colt’s 1836 patent for a “revolving gun.” He tells how Colt’s original company failed, and restored when the Texas Rangers purchased 1000 copies of a Colt design – the Walker Colt – for use in the Mexican-American War. Their use by the Rangers fueled the Colt’s popularity.

Yet, Bainbridge shows, Colt was merely the first man to bring the gun to market. Other players recognized the potential of these firearms and brought out their own designs. Bainbridge discusses these early entrants into the field. He presents the designs they brought out, and the patent battles fought during the 1840s and 1850s.

He traces the lives of the major players. Gunsmith Horace Smith started out working for Allen & Thurber. They had their own repeating design, one involving rotating multiple barrels. Smith went on to team up with Daniel Wesson. They hired Oliver Winchester, who started his own company in the 1850s. He, in turn, hired Benjamin Henry, who developed the Henry rifle. Meanwhile, Christian Sharps started a company using a rifle of his own independent design.

Although the companies struggled during the 1850s, the American Civil War supercharged demand. Soon, what had started out as small-scale manufacturing grew into a major industry, one whose growth continued after the Civil War ended. Demand in the American West and worldwide drove production.

“Gun Barons” provides an interesting and accurate history of the firearms industry and the eccentric, colorful men who founded it. While a history of technology, it is also a story about individuals.

“Gun Barons: The Weapons That Transformed America and the Men Who Invented Them,” by John Bainbridge, Jr. St. Martin’s Press (May 24, 2022, 344 pages $29.99 (Hardcover), $14.99 (Ebook)
This review was written by Mark Lardas who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.

This was a great book and I felt that it was very well written and researched. I would strongly recommend this book to any history lover.

A very interesting book that somehow manages to tie together the lives and families of multiple famous firearms inventors while situating these men within the context of the world they lived in. I loved Bainbridge chose to focus more on the people than the weapons. I feel that there are plenty of sources to look into to learn about the inventions themselves, but learning about the inventors instead was really interesting!

I received an invitation from St. Martin's Press to read and review this history via Netgalley. I thank Netgalley, John Bainbridge Jr, and St. Martins for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this work of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.

This is a precise and complete history of the folks who improved and fashioned firearms as we know them today in the USA. Colt, Remington, Smith&Wesson, and Winchester are names and families familiar to most of us. Still, I found it very interesting to see a breakdown of who contributed to each improvement that resulted in the complex, modern weapon as we see it today, and how the advancement of manufacturing and machining came into the modern age on the tail of those advances, as well.

Those for or against individual ownership of guns can, given the chance, see the beauty and complexity of today's weapons, and must admire the advances made in other fields through the work of these old gunsmithing families. There have been several times in my long life that I have been grateful that someone besides the bad guy was armed. And advertising and posting gun-free zones are an open invitation to crazies. In a life without the second amendment, only the crazies and bad guys would be armed. We need to bring common sense into the solutions we seek to de-escalate gun violence in our cities and towns.

But whichever side of the problem your heart pulls you to, we should all be thankful for these innovative men and women who brought their ideas into our modern world in all fields of manufacturing.

Gun Barons: The Weapons that transformed America and the Men who Invented Them by John Bainbridge Jr was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. Guns, love them or hate them, they are a huge part of what made America great. We have all heard the gun brand names (Smith and Wesson, Remington, etc), but did we know who these people were and how the wea[ons came into being? If you, or someone you buy gifts for reads this book, you will know. No matter your feelings on guns, this is real American history. Give it a read.

5 Stars

Gun Barons: The Weapons that transformed America and the Men who invented them by John Bainbridge Jr is a historical account of the evolution of firearms in the 19th century. The men whose names have become synonymous with American guns. Names like Colt, Smith & Wesson, Winchester and Remington are legendary and are a part of the American story of ingenuity. However, their beginnings and their journey into legend isn’t as well known. These men were at the right time with the inventions. From the westward expansions in the 1840s to the Civil War and into the Gilded Age and through their own trials and tribulations, bankruptcy and competition, these men became legends in the American ideal of individualism They helped bring America as one of the world’s industrial powers. Gun Barons tells the stories behind the men and the guns that made them famous.
Gun Barons presents an interesting history and sets out to capture the boldness and ingenuity of not just these famous gun makers but the people who bought their guns as well. I found it fascinating to read the stories behind the men and their famous names. I also loved hearing about the lesser known men who helped the legends. Names like the White Brothers, Rollin, Josiah Dennis “JD” and Mason who all worked for Samuel Colt, Christopher Spencer, and John May Davies. At one point, the author presents the competition between the Henry and Spencer rifles. However, I would have appreciated pictures that showed the differences visually. As a gun novice, I do not know the differences and nuances between guns. Overall, it was an interesting read about the history of guns in America. If you are interested in the history or the evolution of guns in the 19th century, I recommend Gun Barons.

Gun Barons: The Weapons that transformed America and the Men who invented them
is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook

Could Be An Entertaining - And Equally Informative - History or Discovery Documentary Series. I went into this book expecting something more along the lines of Nathan Gorenstein's The Guns Of John Moses Browning or Jeff Guin's War On The Border... and got a touch of an amalgamation of the two. Like the Gorenstein book, this book is focused on the lives of a select group of men that became icons of gun manufacturing in the US... and how they got there and what their legacies became. Like the Guin book, this book also tells the surrounding history and places these men's live solidly within their historical context, mostly between the Mexican-American war in the front half of the 19 century and the US Civil War and Reconstruction in the back half of the same century. Unlike the Gorenstein text, you're not going to find a lot of technical discussion of the exact details and features of the guns in question here - though you *will* find quite a bit about the various lawsuits and threats of lawsuits that helped some of these men and hindered others of them. Overall, a solid look at the men and the early days of their empires whose names last even into the new Millennium. Very much recommended.

Although it pains many people to admit, the military industrial complex is crucial to American prosperity and survival. Weapons innovation and production is the key to national security, a healthy manufacturing industry, and thriving employment market.

John Bainbridge, Jr. offers a colorful commentary on this phenomenon with his new book, Gun Barons: The Weapons That Transformed America and the Men Who Invented Them. The book provides a history of six iconic American weapons inventors, including Samuel Colt, Oliver Winchester, Horace Smith, Daniel Wesson, and Christopher Spencer spanning the pre and post antebellum period. These men made up a complex mix of corporate and technical specialists that spurred on the growth of America's weapons manufacturing industry in the 19th century.

I highly recommend this title not only for its educational value as a thoroughly researched historical narrative, but also the inspirational and entertaining aspects of the book. Bainbridge delves into the personal triumphs and tragedies of these iconic American figures, their business strategies, and their persistent quests to perfect weapons used for protection, hunting, and yes, unfortunately, killing. This book is definitely a great read!

Gun Barons: The Weapons That Transformed America and the Men Who Invented Them by John Bainbridge Jr. is a nonfiction history book about several early American gunsmiths. Most of the book focuses on activities and people from the 1840’s through the 1870’s. Many of us have heard the names Colt, Smith & Wesson, Henry, Winchester, and Remington. However, how much do we really know about these men and their roles in United States history? They had a decided impact on westward expansion, the Civil War, and beyond.

While guns are a divisive issue, I was interested in knowing more about the men themselves and this book delivered on that. Those that had carpentry, tool making, and machinist experience prior to designing, inventing, and/or making guns and their component parts didn’t surprise me. However, those that had textile and retail experience did surprise me.

One thing that adversely affected the flow of the book was going back and forth between various gunsmiths before the 1840’s. After that, readers are able to see how they interacted, collaborated, or had patent court battles. Whether they were inventors, manufacturers, or investors, these men were willing to take risks to make better weapons. Many went bankrupt more than once. Others relied on other businesses to support them through the lean times. This was a time when manufacturing methods, tools, and marketing methods experienced progress and had a significant impact on industry.

This book focused on the men and the industry. While there is information on the guns, it doesn’t try to convince readers that one was better than the other was. I also found the patent lawsuits fascinating. Overall, I learned a lot about these men that had a vision and pursued it relentlessly.

St. Martin’s Press and John Bainbridge, Jr. provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for May 24, 2022.

The men in America didn't care for the monopoly held by Europe for the manufacture of muskets and other firearms needed to survive in the wilderness, so a number of them became inventors who changed the history of firearms (and warfare) forever. The personal lives of the nineteenth century men whose names became synonymous with firearms is meticulously detailed, as are the prevailing politics of their time. As one who is more familiar with the Brown Bess musket and cannons of the eighteenth century, I wanted pictures to understand all the differences between each inventor's weapons and the progressive modifications. But this was a very interesting read.
I requested and received a free e-book copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy on this history of both the beginning of industrialized gun manufacturing and American history.

American progress was based not only on its people, both oppressors and oppressed, but on what only can be called American ingenuity. Where some could see a stream, others could see a place to build a factory and use that stream to power their new machines. One person's piece of metal was another's safety pin for clothing. This ingenuity and can do spirit was aimed at firearms in hopes of creating a repeating rifle, one that needed not to be loaded after ever shot, which would make a difference not only on the battlefield, or the frontier but in creating profits. And with these profits came patents, lawsuits, patent infringements, companies forming and collapsing, and product being sold to both sides during the coming Civil War. John Bainbridge, Jr, in Gun Barons: The Weapons That Transformed America and the Men Who Invented Them tells of the growth of this new industry, the barons, the inventors, and those who made important advances but have been forgotten by history.

To be clear this is a book about the industry and those who created it, and while various models of guns are discussed this is not a study of ballistics or which is better or why. The book begins with a brief story of one inventor who had the idea, after a long career of making and selling his patents, usually for pittances for a new kind of rifle. The “Volition Repeater” as he dubbed it fired twelve "Rocket Ball" cartridges through a series of actions and levers. As the inventor could never get kinks out of his invention, he sold the patent and moved on. And soon other men would be there with ingenuity, technical skill, hucksterism or just plain old American cash. The names will be familiar from readers of history or westerns, Henry, Spencer, and Winchester, Colt and Smith and Wesson, some who succeeded and created companies that well except for bankruptcies or two continue to this day, or were absorbed by cannier, deep pocketed and better lawyered companies.

The book is very well written and researched. Again this is not a history of guns and their usage, more about the industry that produced them, which some readers might not find as interesting, preferring stories of gun usage rather than milling patent battles. However people would be missing out. This is a very interesting book that never sags or gets bogged down in the details. Even when discussing early men's fashions and the growth of sewing machines which helped Oliver Winchester so much. The detail is quite informative, and Mr. Bainbridge can even make patent law interesting and even a little cliffhangerish in parts. The footnotes are as readable as the text in many places. The book paints a wonderful description of what life in these early factories with the sounds of metal, water pouring by the heat, and the hopes of some of these men trying to figure out better ways, and even more importantly profitable ways.

This is the second book that I have read by Mr. Bainbridge, and I really enjoyed it, and learned quite a bit more industrialization than I thought I would care to know. Recommended for people interested in both American history, or gun development or manufacturing. Also for readers of both Guns of John Moses Browning by Nathan Gorenstein and Triggernometry by Eugene Cunningham.

I received this copy of Gun Barons as an ARC through Netgalley. John Bainbridge Jr. does a bang up job of presenting lots of information in an easy to read and follow formant. I found it absolutely fascinating, that most of the major players in the gun world were all alive at the same right around the Civil war. "The founding fathers of American gun empires lived at the right time. Free of tyranny and drunk on possibility, the United States barreled into the mid-nineteenth century with a sense of conquest and creativity." (pg 8). Prior to reading this book I knew nothing at all about any of the men responsible for the rifles and hand guns that helped to build the west and fight the greatest war ever waged on American soil Samuel Colt, Eliphalet Remington, Horace3 Smith and Daniel Baird Wesson are just a few of the interesting men you will learn about if you read this book. I am not a gun owner or have ever shot a gun of any sort, but as a lover of all things to do with history, I truly enjoyed this book.

Gun Barons
by John Bainbridge, Jr.
Pub Date: May 24, 2022
St.Martin's Press
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this enlightening and interesting ARC.
John Bainbridge, Jr.'s Gun Barons is a narrative history of six charismatic and idiosyncratic men who changed the course of American history through the invention and refinement of repeating weapons. This book brings to life the history of firearms and the men and families who invented them. From Colt, Remington, Smith, Wesson, Spencer, Henry, and Winchester. The book explained how firearms shaped the history of the USA ending at the end of the American Civil War. The book also discusses the history that played out during that time when those men developed their brands of firearms.
I recommend this book!
4 stars

Guns are part of our American history and this book takes a look at those who influenced the industry. No matter how you feel about guns today, this is a significant part of the industrial history of our country and these are the people who mattered.