This is an uninspired history of the American submachine gun. It does have some interesting anecdotes. ( )

This book is a technical, social, and political history of the 38 component, Model 1921, Thompson Submachine Gun.

West Point graduate General John T. Thompson's interest in rapid firing small arms was a result of his experiences in the Spanish American War. The outbreak of World War I and the stalemate in the trenches focused his thoughts on the possibility of a fully automatic, hand held weapon which he called “The Trench Broom”.

The plan was to build and provide such a weapon to the U.S. Forces but development problems delayed the introduction of the “submachine gun” (a term he coined) until after the Armistice. The end of the war found Thompson with a manufacturing facility (Auto-Ordnance), a prototype automatic weapon (the Annihilator), and no market. In 1921 Thompson, in contract with Colt, put into production the Thompson Submachine gun Model of 1921 – attachable buttstock, selector switch to permit aimed semiautomatic fire, a cyclic rate of fire of 800 rounds per minute, and a price tag of $225.

The first 50 pages of the book (from which the above information was gleaned) provide the reader with a brief biography of Thompson and a very readable history of the technical and financial aspects of the development of the Model 1921. The remainder of the book details the history of the weapon on the world stage: the initial tests by the U.S. Army and Marines, first bulk sale of 500 to a moneyed supporter of the Irish Republican Army (they were seized on the Hoboken docks), attempts to market the machine gun as the perfect weapon for the home (“The ideal weapon for the protection of large estates, ranches, plantations, etc.” – Auto-Ordnance ad), the sales campaign to law enforcement, its adoption by organized crime and other criminals as the weapon of choice, its first uses by U.S. Marines in Nicaragua and China, its involvement in numerous small national clashes around the world through the 1930’s, and the offspring of the Model 1921 - the Model 1928 and the Model M1 which became staples of the U.S. military during World War II (“The deadliest weapon, pound for pound, ever devised by man.” – Time Magazine, 1939).

“Antique and Obsolete” is the title of the last chapter of the book and the first sentence sums up the involvement of the Thompson submachine gun in post-World War II affairs – “…the Tommy-gun distinguished itself during the Second World War and then passed quickly into history.”

I think this book is well written and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in 20th Century history. ( )