This is a devastating piece of historical nonfiction which covers the invention of the Gatling gun, the world's first widely used machine gun. If Ms. Keller had simply covered Mr. Gatling's life story and the extent to which his weapon revolutionized war, this would have been a satisfying account of a time (the latter half of the 1800s) in which wars were just beginning to take the first steps towards the all-annihilating attritions common of the 20th century.
But Ms. Keller's account casts a wider net, chronicling the distrust with which military men of this time were distrustful of mechanized war, the long-suffering onlookers of many an inventors boastings to transform the face of war with a single weapon. When the gun was finally adopted, it was seemingly Mr. Gatling's earnest hope that his weapon be the end of all war. After all, faced with a device that could fire virtually any caliber of bullet far more rapidly than any single soldier, why, wouldn't belligerent nations see just how futile war would be? Wouldn't they see the high cost in human capital and necessary for victory and choose, instead, a more peaceable option? If this legend is true, it's perhaps a blessing Mr. Gatling died before he would witness much of the 20th century and realize just how wrong he was, this first in a series of inventors who gave into the hands of infantile governments the power of mass-slaughter on a scale never seen in human history.
This is an excellent and sobering work as much about intellectual arrogance as firearms. (5/5 Stars)
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