Joe Gunns
Member
Recently published in England, online copies are only available in Europe at this time. The July 21-27, 2007 issue NEW SCIENTIST mag reviews book AK47: THE STORY OF THE PEOPLES GUN by Michael Hodges. Review is by Paul Cornish, firearms curator @ Imperial War Museum, London. For those unfamiliar with the mag, it is relentlessly liberal on most issues. But, in this case, it seems they asked the right guy to do the review.
Excerpts: "...the [AK] is crying out for someone to publish a serious study of its cultural and psychological significance. Unfortunately [this] is not it."
"...Hodges is a journalist...his book is written in a relentlessly journalistic style. ...[He has] imperfect understanding of of the characteristics, history of development and tactical and technical contexts of the weapon...."
"While Hodges makes many references to the devastating power of the AK47 to wound, in fact the original AK ammunition was one of the most benign of post-war cartridges in terms of its terminal ballistics.... Only when it was redesigned ... did [it] become as devastating as other equivalent weapons."
"...the story of the development of the American M16 rifle is garbled."
"The eight chapters are loosely linked pieces of reportage redolent of colour-supplement feature articles about places AKs have been used and people who have used them. Internal contradictions suggest that these were stitched together in haste. " He notes that at different places the AK is both "heavy to carry" and "incomparably light," and that selector lever settings are given incorrectly at one place and correctly at another.
He observes that the book is poorly edited with obvious misspellings.
Biographical info on Kalashnikov "...appears to lean heavily on [his] own memoir."
"Although Hodges fails to offer us much in the way of analysis, he is a willing participant in the making of the AK myth, while simultaneously using the AK brand to market his own journalism."
See full review here:
http://www.newscientisttech.com/cha...ory-of-the-peoples-gun-by-michael-hodges.html
Sounds like a long and polite way of saying, "Liberal crap."
James
Excerpts: "...the [AK] is crying out for someone to publish a serious study of its cultural and psychological significance. Unfortunately [this] is not it."
"...Hodges is a journalist...his book is written in a relentlessly journalistic style. ...[He has] imperfect understanding of of the characteristics, history of development and tactical and technical contexts of the weapon...."
"While Hodges makes many references to the devastating power of the AK47 to wound, in fact the original AK ammunition was one of the most benign of post-war cartridges in terms of its terminal ballistics.... Only when it was redesigned ... did [it] become as devastating as other equivalent weapons."
"...the story of the development of the American M16 rifle is garbled."
"The eight chapters are loosely linked pieces of reportage redolent of colour-supplement feature articles about places AKs have been used and people who have used them. Internal contradictions suggest that these were stitched together in haste. " He notes that at different places the AK is both "heavy to carry" and "incomparably light," and that selector lever settings are given incorrectly at one place and correctly at another.
He observes that the book is poorly edited with obvious misspellings.
Biographical info on Kalashnikov "...appears to lean heavily on [his] own memoir."
"Although Hodges fails to offer us much in the way of analysis, he is a willing participant in the making of the AK myth, while simultaneously using the AK brand to market his own journalism."
See full review here:
http://www.newscientisttech.com/cha...ory-of-the-peoples-gun-by-michael-hodges.html
Sounds like a long and polite way of saying, "Liberal crap."
James
