Product Description
No single weapon has spread so much raw power to so many people in so little time—and had such a devastating effect—as the AK-47 assault rifle. This book examines the legacy of this world-changing weapon, from its creation as means of fighting the Nazis to its ubiquity today in every kind of conflict, from civil wars in Africa to gang wars in L.A.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 2.5 based on 38 reviews)

Full of errors, doesn't back up his opinions, lousy read.

This guy obvioulsy knows nothing about guns and is only going on stuff that he read from other people. Too bad he didn't understand that most of the stuff that he read and heard were unsuported opinions that he is passing along as fact. As other reviewers have stated here he makes MANY factual errors that are unacceptable in a non-fiction book on historical events, objects and people. But this is the state of journalism today. Facts are not as important as opinion or the need to make a buck to todays writers. This guy would be better suited to writing childrens books with more pictures than words.
November 04, 2008

It's Not the Gun!

AK-47 gives a firearm way too much credit for transforming how war is fought. If the author's main premise of his book was correct, the Soviets, who were armed with AK-47s, should not have lost in Afghanistan. The author points to other recent wars or conflicts to support his premise, but in every case he comes to the wrong conclusion because his basic thesis is completely flawed.

What has changed is that war in recent history is no longer waged between massive armies of warring nations. Nor is the goal of war the occupation of territory as it had been in previous wars like World War II and World War I. The strategy employed in recent conflicts is the war of attrition perpetrated by forces, though much weaker in firepower, have the advantage of not being in uniform and difficult to identify as the enemy. It's not AK-47s that have bogged the US down in Iraq and it was not AK-47s that drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Nor is the strategy of war of attrition new. George Washington used this strategy in waging the American Revolution. Washington knew that he could not hold territory against the much larger and better-armed British armies and instead adopted a strategy of engagement and retreat. It ultimately became too costly for Britain to continue the fight.

I do agree that the proliferation of firearms around the world by the Soviets and China have contributed significantly to the instability of third world nations. This was indeed a deliberate strategy of the Communist nations to destabilize Western nations. But it is the fact that there were large industrial nations willing to supply insurgents with vast amounts of cheap firearms that's important. It was not because the weapon was the AK-47. Sure the durability and ease of use of the AK-47 was helpful, but it was the fact the AK-47 shoots bullets like any other gun that really matters.

May 28, 2008

AK-47, The weapon that changed the face of war.

I wish I would have read the reviews before I bought. The author expresses two thing extremely well. He knows NOTHING about firearms in general and the AK's in specific. He does not know an AK from an SKS. The second thing that he makes very clear is that he thinks America is the cause of all problems in the world. He thinks that people are faultless and that an inanimate object does terrible things on their own.
The book was a terrible waste of paper and ink. If anyone wants one of these, contact me and I will give you a hell of a deal on this piece of trash.
If you hate America and think machined steel parts make decisions to do bad things on their own, then this book is for you. As for me, I am only sorry that it was not printed in a little larger format. You see, the pages are just too small for the bottom of a bird cage.

April 20, 2008

Someone convinced that the UN can do something about the AK-47 Menace

I was disappointed. This book was initially well-written but rapidly devolved into the world of make-believe. Technically, some of the observations the author made were accurate and even relevent but towards the end it descended into some bizarre bashing of U.S. policy regarding gun control... the United Nations could have stepped in and provided controls over the distribution of AK-47s around the world if only the Bush adminsitration had been on board. This alone is an absurd statement. If someone can tell me of a successful UN initiative over the last 50 years I would be glad to listen to it. In the meantime, the UN's role in the sex trade in Africa and its abysmal record in limiting nuclear proliferation makes it a poor model for fixing the problems of the world.

The book is remarkably under-illustrated, even in regards to some graphics and photos which would be easy to acquire. Oh, and the part added to the book about how the Coalition is getting its butt kicked in Iraq thanks to the AK-47 just seems to be a last-minute attempt to cash in on "hate America."

There are better books.
April 07, 2008

Would have been better as a magazine article - by another author.

As a firearms enthusiast and fan of the AK-47 and its variants, I checked this out from my local library without reading any reviews beforehand. I finished it in a matter of hours during two legs of a flight and now truly regret not using that time to read thru the SKYMALL magazine.

AK-47 fails on every level. It fails as biography of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the gun's inventor. It fails as technical history of a rifle. And it fails miserably at what the bulk of the book is directed toward: political history. While any of these approaches (or all three) could easily, and more successfully, be distilled into a decent magazine article (and have been), none are even remotely achieved by Larry Kahaner.

What begins as the story of Kalashnikov deteriorates into half-baked rehashes of global conflicts with a "the rag-tag rebels succeeded because of the affordability of the AK" thrown in each time. And while every author is indeed entitled to their own opinion with regard to firearms, Kahaner's disgust for the AK-47 (and all firearms and the 2nd Amendment and so on) is apparent - and the reader quickly feels duped into picking up what appears to be an historical overview. Kahaner even goes so far as to blame the AK for the use of child soldiers in some conflicts due to its simplicity of use.

AK-47 finishes up lambasting Kalashnikov for marketing his name and spends way too many pages describing failed vodka ventures - none of which relates in any way to the subject matter at hand (or readers who care about the firearm).

For shooting enthusiasts and/or history buffs, this could have been an intelligent read if approached by the right author. I am not so narrow-minded that I would not admit that the affordable, reliable AK-47 has made a difference in global conflicts - I just want to read about how it has from a reliable, objective source.

Simply put, the worst piece of nonfiction regarding any subject I have read in a long, long time.
March 16, 2008

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