Chivers, C. J

"More than 2.7 million Americans have served in Afghanistan or Iraq since September 11, 2001. C.J. Chivers reported from both wars from their beginnings . . . [this book] conveys the physical and emotional experience of war as lived by six combatants: a fighter pilot, a corpsman, a scout helicopter pilot, a grunt, an infantry officer, and a Special Forces sergeant"--Provided by publisher.

Presents the history of the AK-47 rifle. Discusses how it became the preferred weapon of the Soviet Union, while the Pentagon dismissed it as crude. Explains how large quantities of the compact automatic weapon were manufactured, eventually landing in the hands of the Taliban. Also describes the weapon's predecessors back to the nineteenth century and the implications of its spread into the twenty-first century.