The Gun: The Story of the AK-47 - Tapa dura

With impelling force, C. J. Chivers tells a remarkable story of how this one, superbly reliable firearm became the most abundant ever produced, and was to exceed the consequences even of Soviet nuclear know-how in the Cold War, and beyond (Alistair Horne, author of 'The Price of Glory' and 'A Savage War of Peace')

Dazzling ... startling ... The Gun does exactly what the best art history or music writing does - it opens our eyes to see anew the familiar (Doug Stanton, author of 'Horse Soldiers')

The Gun is for those who wonder how we fight today and why we fight that way. C. J. Chivers has given us a seminal work (James Bradley, author of 'Flags of Our Fathers')

Absorbing and beautifully written ... The story of this particular weapon becomes in an important sense the story of the violence and threat at the heart of the more than sixty years since the gun was first introduced (Richard Overy)

Chivers is a first-rate war correspondent and a prodigious researcher ... The Gun is likely to become the standard account of the world's standard assault rifle (Max Boot New York Times Book Review)

Chivers's mastery of history and engineering is matched by his mastery of language ... The Gun is a riveting read (Raymond Bonner Guardian)

Chivers tells the story well ... [he is] superb on the technical history of the AK-47 and its predecessors, but he also strikingly underlines its human cost as well as weaving adeptly through the propaganda (Tim Newark Financial Times)

A formidable feat of research and writing ... he has produced surely the final word on one of the most iconic weapons of our times (Roger Moorhouse Independent on Sunday)

Chivers is admirably meticulous in his research (Justin Marozzi Telegraph)