"Frank Smyth's surprising and eye-opening history reveals how the NRA, which once supported reasonable gun safety laws, became an extreme, no-compromises warrior for the Second Amendment and transformed America. This is a must-read for anyone interested in guns, American politics, or the daily tragedy of gun violence." —Adam Winkler , author of Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America the book for anyone who has ever wondered why the United States is incapable of even minor regulation of firearms, despite alarming levels of gun violence and consistent, broad public support for it. Frank Smyth has delivered a clearly-written, diligently-researched, and level-headed answer. He documents how the NRA, once primarily a sporting group that advocated sensible gun controls, has buried its past, rewritten history, and transformed itself into an enormously influential right-wing force that has elevated gun fetishism into a political ideology that, for many, borders on religion." —Mark Bowden , journalist and author of Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo The NRA tracks the NRA back to the 1870s, when its civic-minded founders promoted rifle practice, shooting matches, and gun safety. Always compelling and full of surprises!" —Nancy Woloch , author of Women and the American Experience and co-author of The American Century: A History of the United States since the 1890s The NRA: The Unauthorized History ." —Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson , USA (Ret), former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell and Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and MaryT he NRA is a must-read for these sections alone." —Bookforum —Kirkus —Publishers Weekly —Here & There with Dave Marash —Vox
The long and complicated history of the powerful gun rights organization known as the National Rifle Association merits a serious examination by an author not handpicked by the group to tell its story. The journalist and gun enthusiast Frank Smyth has nominated himself for the task. The result, The N.R.A.: The Unauthorized History, is an earnest and refreshingly even-tempered…account of the most feared lobbying force in America.
The New York Times Book Review - Robert Draper
03/30/2020
Journalist Smyth debuts with a balanced and accessible history of the National Rifle Association. Both a gun owner and a supporter of gun control measures, Smyth critiques the modern NRA’s “absolutist” stances against gun control, but is primarily interested in tracing the organization’s evolution from a Reconstruction-era group in New York City interested in militia preparedness to its early-20th-century emergence as a national organization focused on educating sportsmen about marksmanship and gun safety. Smyth reveals that the NRA had a long history of supporting state and federal gun control measures, including those aimed at limiting access to firearms for convicted felons, people connected to organized crime, and political radicals. Beginning in the late 1960s, however, the NRA started delving into partisan politics, increasingly aligning itself with the Republican Party. Smyth points to the organization’s 1977 annual meeting in Cincinnati, when strident anti–gun control activists Harlon Carter and Neal Knox orchestrated a series of votes that installed Carter in the top leadership post, as the first step in the remaking of the NRA into a well-funded lobbying organization with the political clout to weather public outrage over Columbine, Sandy Hook, and other mass shootings. Smyth chronicles the NRA’s internal debates with painstaking detail, though the organization’s secrecy prevents jaw-dropping revelations. Readers tired of partisanship on both sides of the gun control debate will appreciate this straightforward overview. (Mar.)
04/10/2020
Journalist Smyth debuts with a balanced history of the National Rifle Association (NRA), staring with its founding by former soldiers George Wood Wingate and William Conant Church after the Civil War as an organization dedicated to marksmanship. Smyth shows how the association was initially supportive of gun control, rifle training, and conservation up until the 1970s, until pivotal movements—including the "Cincinnati Revolt" of 1977 along with gun advocate (and convicted murderer) Harlon Carter assuming leadership of the association—led to its rapid transformation into a politically conservative, Republican-controlled lobbying organization. Notably, Smyth describes how the NRA developed enough political clout to counter popular gun control laws and deflect public outrage after mass shootings. He also covers the tenures of NRA leaders such as Marion Hammer, the first woman to hold the position of NRA president, and CEO Wayne LaPierre. The author, a gun owner and a supporter of gun control, thoroughly documents the NRA's internal debates, tortuous efforts to rewrite its public image and history, and recent efforts to recruit celebrity advocates. VERDICT The book is meticulously detailed, sometimes overly so, including investigations into the NRA's internal debates and parliamentary process. Still, libraries looking for a nonpartisan history of the organization will be well-served.—Edwin Burgess, Kansas City, KS
2020-03-19
Smyth admits he’s a “Fudd,” a derisive NRA term for a gun owner who supports gun regulations. As befits that nuanced stance, the author offers a measured, scrupulously researched political history that shows how the NRA has evolved from an organization promoting rifle marksmanship to an unrelenting foe of all limits on guns. Smyth blends a great-man approach to history with an instinct for following money trails, telling the story of the NRA largely through its leaders and how their financial or other decisions shaped the group and the nation. First came founders George Wood Wingate and William Conant Church, former Union officers who, dismayed by “the appalling lack of marksmanship on both sides in the Civil War,” started the group during Reconstruction. The 20th century brought presidents like Harlon B. Carter, a convicted murderer whose conviction was overturned on appeal; and Marion Hammer, the first female president, who, after the 1992 Rodney King riots, wrote an article called “You loot—we shoot” for NRA publication American Rifleman . The current leader, Wayne LaPierre, has recruited celebrities like Charlton Heston and turned the group into a deep-pocketed political titan that gave $54.4 million to candidates in the 2016 elections. After the Columbine massacre in 1999, the NRA developed “a playbook” for responding to demands for gun controls, which included tactics such as: “Deflect by saying this is not a time to discuss politics but a time to mourn.” Many such unsavory details will be maddening to gun rights absolutists, but Smyth avoids quoting anonymous sources, drawing on well-documented material and staying neutral (and above accusations of bias) on controversies. The result is an authoritative, no-frills story, long on solid information but short on the color and passion that might have made it sing.
A fair and balanced portrait of one of America’s most controversial organizations. (first printing of 200,000) (Adult, nonfiction, history, political history, organizations, National Rifle Association)
