''Tommy Gun: How General Thompson's Submachine Gun Wrote History'' is a non-fiction book written by

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

author Bill Yenne in 2009. The book traces the history of the

Thompson submachine gun The Thompson submachine gun (also known as the "Tommy Gun", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", “Trench Sweeper” or "Trench Broom") is a blowback-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed selective-fire submachine gun, invented by United Stat ...

, also known as the Tommy gun, through its usage in warfare, organised crime, and subsequently, its presence in film and television, as an "immortal icon."

Background

''Tommy Gun'' details the development of the Thompson submachine gun, created by

John T. Thompson John Taliaferro () (anglicized to "Tolliver"http://www.nfatoys.com/tsmg/web/genthomp.htm John T. Thompson; A Brief History) Thompson (December 31, 1860 – June 21, 1940) was a United States Army officer best remembered as the inventor of the Th ...

towards the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and the reasons that made it an attractive weapon to the

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

during the

Prohibition era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...

, and the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

, who adopted it during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Reception

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' described ''Tommy Gun'' as an "in-depth, entertaining history of the legendary weapon", and praised the attention given to the technical details of the weapon, alongside the "meticulous" overview of 20th century small arms. Richard Carleton Hacker of ''Shooting Illustrated'' called it a "must read." ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' writer Jesse Berrett was more critical, saying that the book was "entertaining in spots", but criticised it for being " anecdotal to a fault. It poses no argument, offers no political perspective, and worse, endorses no principle of selection; ultimately the lack of analysis, or direction, grows frustrating." Though Berrett praised the "astonishing range" of photographs, he said that "Yenne loves his subject so much that his perspective blurs when he raises his eyes", resulting in a "frustratingly apolitical" work.

References

*"Tommy Gun: How General Thompson's Submachine Gun Wrote History"; Yenne, Bill. {{ISBN, 978-0-312-38326-8. St. Martin's Press. New York. 2009. 2009 non-fiction books American history books Firearm books Thomas Dunne Books books