Book Review: Images of America: Smith & Wesson

When I was working in the gun store, a wise old fudd once told me: “a four-inch revolver is the only gun you’ll ever need.” Of course, everyone has a pocket full of truisms to back up his or her own subjective preferences, and I had a Glock on my hip at the time, so I just filed away his remark somewhere in the back of my mind near where the dirty jokes and Star Trek references (and dirty Star Trek jokes) live. It wasn’t until I bought one for myself, basically on a lark, that I realized he’d kind of had a point. True, autoloaders tend to come with two or three times the ammunition capacity and are generally easier to shoot rapidly and accurately, but there’s a lot you can do with something like a Ruger GP100, a Colt King Cobra, or of course, a Smith & Wesson Model 19. This blog post isn’t about the advantages and disadvantages of revolvers as compared to each other or to autoloaders, though; it’s a book review.

Among revolver fans, the Smith & Wesson name commands near-universal respect. Their guns aren’t the cheapest or the nicest, but they have spent more than a century and a half building a reputation for consistent quality that few other firearm manufacturers can match. Images of America: Smith & Wesson, by historians Roy G. Jinks and Sandra C. Krein, shows that story in pictures, from the beginning of Horace Smith and D.B. Wesson’s first partnership in 1852 to the time the Wesson family sold off its remaining equity in 1965.

At only 120 pages long, Images of America: Smith & Wesson is a very short book, necessitating an accordingly short review. In other words, the book is basically a giant photo essay, so I can’t really summarize the contents the same way I would for an ordinary book review. Instead, I’ll point out the things I enjoy in the book, and if those sound like things you’d like, you can go buy the book for yourself. Sound like a plan?

First off, Smith & Wesson isn’t just about the factories or the guns, it’s about the company itself. Accordingly, it isn’t just a photo album showing off brick facades and mustached machinists; it offers a mix of historic photographs, old promotional materials, patent drawings, and even letters. I find the patent drawings particularly interesting because, through them, the reader can intuitively understand how models such as the Volcanic and .32 Double Action worked, and therefore what made them so innovative.

I also like looking at the old advertisements that might have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the turn of the last century. Their sharply dressed gentlemen and ladies with neatly coiffed hair are a far cry from the bearded dudebros and scantily clad women seen in some modern firearm advertisements. In terms of content, though, those old ads read just like modern ones; either showing dramatic drawings of regular people in domestic settings using their revolvers for personal protection, extolling the power and accuracy of the firearms, or bragging about their military and law enforcement bona fides. Indeed, Smith & Wesson revolvers were once dominant in police circles and used widely by militaries on every populated continent.

They didn’t just make revolvers, either—Smith & Wesson handcuffs have long been a staple for police officers, and during the Great Depression, the company turned to making household appliances in its desperation to stay afloat. This book even contains drawings of, and an advertisement for, the Smith & Wesson toilet flush valve.

Something unexpected that readers might find interesting is a chapter on the more “domestic” side of Smith & Wesson. Toward the end of the book, the reader is treated to photographs of such congenial scenes as employees enjoying a Christmas party and the company’s baseball and hockey teams posing together. Yes, Smith & Wesson used to have its own baseball team; the “Gunners” used to dominate the Industrial League.

All in all, despite Images of America: Smith & Wesson’s short length, I enjoy casually leafing through it when I’m bored. It probably won’t be worth the $24.99 asking price to most people, but for someone who likes Smith & Wesson firearms and wants a casual look into its history through photographs, it might be a good buy. If you have a revolver fan in your family who enjoys photo books like this, definitely add it to your list of gift ideas for his or her next birthday or other gift-giving occasion.