Tommy: The Gun That Changed America (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781250115409)

The fascinating and topical nonfiction story of how one gun changed American courtrooms, streets, and homes, told for a YA audience by award-winning author Karen Blumenthal

John Taliaferro Thompson had a mission: to develop a lightweight, fast-firing weapon that would help Americans win on the battlefield. His Thompson submachine gun could deliver a hundred bullets in a matter of seconds--but didn't find a market in the U.S. military. Instead, the Tommy gun became the weapon of choice for a generation of bootleggers and bank-robbing outlaws, and became a deadly American icon. Following a bloody decade--and eighty years before the mass shootings of our own time--Congress moved to take this weapon off the streets, igniting a national debate about gun control.

Critically-acclaimed author Karen Blumenthal, author of Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition, Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History, and Six Days in October: The Stock Market Crash of 1929, reveals the fascinating illustrated story of this famous and deadly weapon--of the lives it changed, the debate it sparked, and the unprecedented response it inspired in Tommy: The Gun That Changed America.

Praise for Tommy: The Gun that Changed America:
"The Thompson rapid-firing submachine gun is the crux of Blumenthal's accessible social history, which encompasses military weaponry, gangster warfare, and gun-control legislation. . . . Engrossing and grisly." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Blumenthal's fascinating biography of the weapon is most dramatic in its chapters on the famous gangsters. . . . Lively prose, well-selected photographs, and thorough source notes round out this fine work. A gripping look at guns, gangsters, and finding the 'right balance between individual freedoms and community safety.'" --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Author: Karen Blumenthal
ISBN-10: 125011540X
ISBN-13: 9781250115409
Publisher: Square Fish
Language: English
Published: 08/01/2017
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.50d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 8.3
Point Value: 6
Interest Level: Middle Grade
Quiz #/Name: 175610 / Tommy: The Gun That Changed America