You know how it is, you’re sitting in Denny’s chomping on the 12th strip of bacon from your All American Artery Buster breakfast, when the waitress leans over and asks if you know the muzzle velocity of an M242 Chain Gun. Through your mouth full of food you drool, “3610 fps”, and think how embarrassed you could have been if you hadn’t read Ian V. Hogg’s “Machine Gun”. Is there a point here? Damn, I sure hope so.
The way I see it, the greater contents of most firearms publications are filled with pictures of guns the reader will never own, even if they are a hyperactive enthusiast and don’t mind living in a tree so you can fund their little hobby. So we read gun books as part of our potential owner research, but we also read them to learn more about firearms as interesting machine, and sometimes we read them to gain another perspective on history and society. “Machine Guns” is a good book for anyone interested in firearms as machinery and, possibly, for those who wish to conduct a fundamental exploration of these types of guns in context to world history.
“Machine Guns” was not produced with great quality, perhaps a notch below most paperback firearm annuals found on the newsstand. There are only 16 color pages and modern photographs, out of a 336 page book that that is otherwise filled with historical photographs and illustrations. The author also liberally references passages from government manuals and literature in public domain. On one hand, this use of old public domain material may be for the sake of historical accuracy and appropriate, because much of the equipment presented is very old. On the other hand, use of royalty free print material can be used primarily to cut publication costs, and fill out a book that might otherwise be a little light on page count. This seems to be a Krause publishing theme, where large chunks of information may be reused to create a number of titles and, subsequently, generate more revenue from the same material. If you’ve read much by Steven King, you are probably familiar with the technique.
On a more positive note, there is a lot of information presented, and the images that were used did a decent job of supporting gun specific text. The author explains much, from the various types of weapons’ operating systems, to specific warfare tactical problems that drove the development of equipment. I found much of this material interesting, but I know squat about machine gun engineering and applications. The overall arrangement of the information is a little scattered; the first approach to organization followed the evolution of mechanical machine guns and extend to more modern equipment, but then the next three chapters switched flow, and followed machine gun development along a timeline based upon wars – No big deal, there is a pretty comprehensive table of contents and index to reference when looking for something specific.
This book was written for the curious who like to talk about guns whenever they get the chance. It is written for anyone who wants to know more about firearms and would not have first hand access to these types of weapons. “Machine Guns” is a good $10 book that will cost $25 through Amazon, with shipping included.
Thanks
Joe
| Book Info & Summary: | |||
 Retail Price: |
$21 | Author: |
Ian V. Hogg |
| Publisher: |
Krause | Publish Date: |
January 2002 |
| Format: |
Paperback 336pp | Available: |
Amazon |
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