Revolver

Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America

By: Jim Rasenberger

Narrated by: Jacques Roy

A “gripping” (Booklist), “clear-eyed, and honest” (The New York Times Book Review) biography of Samuel Colt - the inventor of the legendary Colt revolver (a.k.a. six-shooter), which changed the US forever, triggering the industrial revolution and the settlement of the American West.

Patented in 1836, the Colt pistol with its revolving cylinder was the first practical firearm that could shoot more than one bullet without reloading. For many reasons, Colt’s gun had a profound effect on American history. Its most immediate impact was on the expansionism of the American West, where White emigrants and US soldiers came to depend on it and where Native Americans came to dread it. The six-shooter became the iconic weapon of gunslingers, outlaws, and cowboys - some willing to pay $500 out West for a gun that sold for $25 back East.

In making the revolver, Colt also changed American manufacturing - his factory revolutionized industry in the United States. Ultimately, Colt and his gunmaking brought together the two most significant forces of change before the Civil War - the industrial revolution in the East, Manifest Destiny in the West.

“Written with a journalist’s sense of color and a historian’s eye for the revealing detail” (The Wall Street Journal), Revolver brings the brazenly ambitious and profoundly innovative industrialist and leader Samuel Colt to vivid life. In the space of his 47 years, he seemingly lived five lives: He traveled, womanized, drank prodigiously, smuggled guns to Russia, bribed politicians, and supplied the Union Army with the guns they needed to win the Civil War. Colt lived during an age of promise and progress, but also of slavery, corruption, and unbridled greed, and he not only helped to create this America, he completely embodied it. By the time he died in 1862 in Hartford, Connecticut, he was one of the most famous men in the nation and one of the richest.

“Offering a panoramic view of American culture during Colt’s life” (LA Review of Books) Revolver is a “rollicking and informative account [that] will delight American history buffs” (Publishers Weekly).

©2020 Jim Rasenberger (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio

the Colt weapons which brought many too massacre

I now realized Sam Colt a Confederate sympathizer, a traitor of fact, and a devious business man

How a revolver changed the world.

Anyone interested in 19th Century US history will love this book. Rasenberger weaves the story of how Colt’s revolver revolutionized manufacturing with the ease and skill of William Manchester and David McCullough. An immensely informative and enjoyable read.

Would be better with out the virtue signaling

I enjoyed the book alright, but the author makes a point to morally wag his finger at the past. Looking at the past with today’s morals is a fools errand and I would rather hear the whole story than looking at it from today’s perspective. There are better books about this subject.

Outstanding history of Colt, his gun, & the time

This book is well researched and scholarly, but still readable and entertaining. The author gives you an easy to follow chronology, filling it with well known and little known facts about Colt's life, his family and the development of his gun. Where sources are conflicting, he presents the known facts but lets the reader draw his/her own conclusions. Finally, in today's environment with strong sentiments about firearms, he deftly lays out the story without passing judgement.
A great read with a first rate narrator.

Fascinating, and so well done.

I think this book is exceedingly good and well narrated. I found the book compelling. It is long, but I never lost interest. While it is essentially a biography of Sam Colt and his revolver, it also provides rich historical insight into life in America in the early 19th century. I applaud the author, the narrator, and others involved in creating this masterpiece.

Sam Colt, but not the Revolver

All about Sam Colt, who patented the first mass-produced a rapid-fire pistol. But not about the arm itself or its characteristics, or about its subsequent history. Colt arguably, along with Eli Whitney, invented the 'American System' or assembly-line method of manufacture.

Very little about the gun itself.

great history

did not realize the amount of history the Colt family has and the struggles they endured. excellent read!

Great biography

This is so much more than the story of a gun. It is a meticulously researched biography of a man and a family. Colt's experiences and inventions were diverse. Much of his life resembles a soap opera, so this makes for an entertaining read.

The author seems to run out of steam over the last decade or so of Colts life. I don't know if this is due to a lack of source material, but I would have liked more detail on that era. But its a minor quibble for an excellent book.

I’m not convinced he wanted to write this book

It’s a very mixed bag. It is a pretty good, and often entertaining, summation of Colt’s life. The guns are not really discussed in any great depth, which is probably for the best, as the author gets a lot of those details wrong. The author may have a vague, passing familiarity with firearms, but he makes plain, though unintentionally, that he doesn’t know much about them, their use, or their history.

Now for the bad. The book spends a great deal of time exploring what he feels is wrong about America, the Mexican War, Sand Creek, Bloody Bill Anderson, the Texas Rangers, westward expansion, the South, anyone that didn’t vote for Lincoln, among many other things he views as national and cultural failings. Beyond being not terribly relevant to main subject, his command of those events is often downright poor. He either really wanted to write books on those subjects instead of Samuel Colt, and for some reason could not, or he really, REALLY, didn’t want his woke friends to denounce him for writing a book about someone of whom they might disapprove.

Which is a shame, because when he isn’t giving opinions and discussing history he doesn’t know much about, it’s an interesting book.

Political hit piece veiled as a historical account

Unfortunately the author chose to write this book seemingly to vilify current gun violence and attempt to lead readers to drawing the conclusion that Samuel Colt is somehow responsible for tragic modern day atrocities. For a book titled revolver, he spends very little time describing or discussing it or Colt’s manufacturing or innovation. Rather he glosses over those topics intent on placing blame on Colt for the notions of slavery, international conflict between European and Asian countries and general gun hysteria surrounding modern day. Great performance from the narrator. It was very hard to get through this as a history enthusiast. Even harder to listen to as a gun enthusiast. Look elsewhere for actual history unless you want to hear this author’s opinion on the aforementioned topics.