Praise
for American Gun

Kirkus Review icon linking to its review of American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15

Publishers Weekly icon linking to its review of American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15

"[A] magisterial work of narrative history and original reportage.....Policymakers and the public alike have much to learn from it."

“[R]iveting history....This book is not to be missed."

The Guardian calls American Gun “an indispensable read.” Author and journalist Charles Kaiser writes: "Written by two fine Wall Street Journal reporters, Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, the book is packed with characters and plot turns, from Eugene Stoner, the publicity-shy inventor who designed the first AR-15 in the 1950s, to the embrace of the gun by Robert McNamara and John F Kennedy, which led to its disastrous adoption as the chief weapon for army infantrymen in Vietnam.”

In its starred review, Kirkus Reviews declares American Gun “superb history,” “insightful,” “meticulously researched,” and “impressively informed.” “Ultimately, readers gain an unsettling and timely understanding of how ‘a device created to protect America [is] wounding it.’ A riveting exploration of the cost of the nation’s fascination with an iconic weapon.”

Kirkus Reviews picks American Gun for its list of top nonfiction books of 2023.

"One of the most unexpected questions raised by their history of the semi-automatic rifle, which has been used by the perpetrators of many of the worst mass shootings in American history, is the following: What if the edgelord identity embraced by many mass shooters is not the result of alienation or mental illness but instead speaks to a successful marketing push of an industry doing business as usual."

New Yorker editors picked American Gun as one of the best books of 2023.

Author Colin Dickey wrote: "It’s a classic American tale not just because of Stoner’s determination, but also because of the tides of graft and grifting that helped the gun’s rise to fame."

The New York Times chose American Gun for its select reading list of new books being published in September. It wrote: "An important book on a sadly topical subject, American Gun, by two reporters for The Wall Street Journal, enlists formidable research and reporting in the service of explaining how an assault rifle developed for military use by a Marine veteran and self-taught engineer in the 1950s was marketed to civilians, eventually becoming the weapon of choice for perpetrators of mass shootings."

In its list of "30 books We can’t wait to read this fall," The Los Angeles Times says of American Gun: "The authors weave Stoner’s story alongside a propulsive, often wrenching tale of politicking and ever-escalating rhetoric." In its list of books to read in September, the Times says: "The authors meticulously interview many people on all sides of the debate over this tragically iconic weapon of war."

Journalist Mark Follman writes: “American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15,” by journalists Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, is a deeply reported, engrossing account of the rifle, tracing its evolution from battlefield combat to today’s domestic carnage and culture war.

American Gun is on The Washington Post's list of top 50 nonfiction books of 2023.

American Gun’s “reporting astonishes..." and adds that the book's section on mass shootings "accrues with devastating force..."

Publishers Weekly: "Wall Street Journal reporters McWhirter (Red Summer) and Elinson tell a captivating tale of unintended consequences in this deeply researched history of the AR-15...The result is a fascinating genealogy of a weapon that has become the flashpoint of the contemporary gun control debate."

Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life: "American Gun is an unforgettable story of American ingenuity and mayhem, built with hard-core reporting and gripping prose. This is social history at its finest."

Andrew DeMillo of the Associated Press: "The well-reported book is vital for anyone who wants to understand how Stoner’s creation transformed over time into what the authors call the 'fulcrum of America’s great gun divide.' "

Chicago Tribune picks American Gun The True Story of the AR-15 by Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson

The Chicago Tribune's list of top 75 books coming out this fall calls American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 "an 'Oppenheimer' tragedy of unintended consequences."

The Millions Most Anticipated Books of 2023: "With mass shootings now endemic to American life, two veteran Wall Street Journal journalists look at one of the most common culprits—the AR-15—to figure out how we got here. Tracing the weapon’s history and embrace by the gun industry, the duo reveals the various financial, political, and cultural interests at play in the horrific assent of a killing machine. Esteemed MLK biographer Jonathan Eig calls this 'social history at its finest.' "

Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2023: "I can’t tell you how sorry I am that we need this history of the AR-15, from Wall Street Journal reporters McWhirter and Elinson, which seeks to answer the question: 'How did the same gun represent the essence of freedom to millions of Americans and the essence of evil to millions more?' And yet need it we do."

James Pekoll: “This is an excellent, thoroughly researched synthesis…presented in an even-handed manner that has the potential to bridge the divide between all but the most committed partisans. Such a highly charged subject deserves a well-written analysis, grounded in facts and presented with journalistic detachment, and McWhirter and Elinson deliver on all counts.”

Cover of The Race Beat by Gene Roberts and Hank Kilbanoff

Hank Klibanoff, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and co-author of The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation: "American Gun is an engrossing read. It is both a revealing biography and a thorough autopsy of a historical figure that resides in millions of American homes: the AR-15 rifle, the destructive weapon of choice in many mass killings and a source of heartbreak that gnaws at the souls of millions of Americans every day."

Paul S. Barrett, the author of Glock: The Rise of America's Gun: This book should be of vital interest to both gun-rights advocates and those who would ban the AR-15 as the instrument of ruthless death at schools, Walmarts, and grocery stores. At this fraught moment, there is no more compelling symbol of the unique American fascination with ― and horror over ― firearms.

James Tarmy of Bloomberg News picked American Gun as the top nonfiction book on his list of "This Fall's 10 Most Anticipated New Books.

"American Gun is a fascinating social history."