Gun country : gun capitalism, culture, and control in Cold War America / Andrew C. McKevitt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McKevitt, Andrew C., author.

Series:

Book collections on Project MUSE

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gun control--United States--History--20th century.

Gun control.

Firearms ownership--United States--History--20th century.

Firearms ownership.

Cold War--Social aspects--United States.

Cold War.

United States--Economic conditions--20th century.

United States.

United States--Social life and customs--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 319 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2023.

Summary:

"Just as World War II transformed the United States into a global military and economic superpower, so too did it forge the gun country America is today. After 1945, war-ravaged European nations possessed large surpluses of mass-produced weapons, and American entrepreneurs seized the opportunity to buy used munitions for pennies on the dollar and resell them stateside. A booming consumer market made cheap guns accessible to millions of Americans, and rates of gun ownership and violence began to climb. Andrew C. McKevitt tells the history of this gun boom through the dynamics of consumer capitalism and Cold War ideology, the combination of which resulted in a vast number of Americans arming themselves to the teeth and centering their political identity on their guns. When gun control legislation emerged in the 1960s, many Americans, accustomed to the unregulated postwar bounty of cheap guns and fearful of Soviet invasion, domestic subversion, and urban uprisings, fiercely challenged it. Meanwhile, gun control groups were diverted from their abolitionist roots toward a conciliatory, fundraising-focused strategy that struggled to limit the stockpiling of firearms. Gun Country recasts the story of guns in postwar America as one of Cold War and racial anxieties, unfettered capitalism, and exceptional violence that continues to haunt us to this day"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The dumping ground

Oswald's other gun

This means war

Civilization and guns

The loophole

Little old ladies in tennis shoes

The mothers of today

The Cold War's second amendment

America's worst disease

Global gun grabbers

This American carnage.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

979-88-908607-0-5

1-4696-7498-X