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The Winchester: The Gun That Built an American Dynasty
“Details the extraordinary life of Oliver Winchester, the company, and its rapid rise and slow fall as told by a distant family descendant.”—American Gunsmith Arguably the world’s most famous firearm, the Winchester Repeating Rifle was sought after by a cast of characters ranging from the settlers of the American West to the Ottoman Empire’s Army. Laura Trevelyan, a descendant of the Winchester family, offers an engrossing personal history of the colorful New England clan responsible for the creation and manufacture of the “Gun that Won the West.” Trevelyan chronicles the rise and fortunes of a great American arms dynasty, from Oliver Winchester’s involvement with the Volcanic Arms Company in 1855 through the turbulent decades of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She explores the evolution of an iconic, paradigm-changing weapon that has become a part of American culture; a longtime favorite of collectors and gun enthusiasts that has been celebrated in fiction, glorified in Hollywood, and applauded in endorsements from the likes of Annie Oakley, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, and Native American tribesmen who called it “the spirit gun.” “[A] detailed but accessible look at the life, times and commerce of Oliver Winchester—Trevelyan’s great great great grandfather—and his many descendants of both the human and firearms varieties . . . Whether you’re a fan of firearms or simply of American history, there is much to enjoy and learn in this easy-to-read and well-footnoted volume.”—American Shooting Journal “The book is beautifully illustrated, with fascinating photos of the Winchester family, and with well-known historical figures—including the Native American leader Geronimo and President Theodore Roosevelt—clutching their repeating rifles.”—Times Literary Supplement
- GenresHistory
265 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 20, 2016
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63 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 31, 2022
This was a Daedalus book that I got mainly to find out more about Sarah Winchester of the Winchester Mystery House. However it turned out to be the saga of the entire Winchester family and their gun business. With all the outrage in recent years over AK guns that pump numerous bullets in seconds, it was surprising to discover that "repeating rifles" have been around since before the Civil War. I know virtually nothing about guns and have no real interest in them, however the book points out that people do find enjoyment in the sports of hunting and target shooting.
The history of gun use in North America shows that "For the pioneers who were settling America, a rifle was a necessity, a utility like water and fire--it was a way to get food and to protect your family from attack." She quotes an Englishman in 1774 as saying: "There is not a man born in America that does not understand the use of firearms and it is almost the first thing they purchase and take to all the New Settlements and in the Cities you scarcely find a lad of 12 years that does not go a gunning." And there we are it is a national trait and past-time since the beginning. How can we expect that to change? "The three cornerstones upon which the pioneer Americans built this nation were firearms, the axe and the plow but of the three firearms were the most dramatic and appealed most to the popular imagination."
The book is mainly about the business of guns, Winchester family business and Winchester repeating rifles. But by the 1980's "times were tough in the rifle business. Americans were buying far fewer firearms than they did in the 1960's and 1970's. Declining crime rates, shrinking space for hunting, tighter gun-control laws, economic hard times for blue-collar workers and a waning interest from young people in hunting and target shooting led to a slowdown in sales." The family sold the business to a corporation. But gun sales have picked up in more recent times with the threat of more gun control laws making people think they won't be able to get or keep their guns. Like tobacco, making and selling guns is one of those businesses that humans made a lot of money doing because other humans were enticed to think they needed tobacco and guns.
There was one whole chapter on Sarah Winchester and her house in San Jose, California. According to the author who is a descendent of the Winchester's, Sarah was not the loony old lady she is reputed to have been. She was grief stricken from her loss of her husband and child but she had the money and she liked architecture and building. She sought solitude because of the gossip. Her real legacy is the money she gave to a hospital in New Haven at Yale for lung disorders that is still helping people today. If you can put aside the crazy stories invented by the people who bought her house and wanted to make money out of it, it is an interesting place to visit when you are in the area.
An interesting book for the most part and almost makes you think guns are OK for sport but of course the killing part can't be ignored. You can call them firearms but they really are weapons of destruction.
The history of gun use in North America shows that "For the pioneers who were settling America, a rifle was a necessity, a utility like water and fire--it was a way to get food and to protect your family from attack." She quotes an Englishman in 1774 as saying: "There is not a man born in America that does not understand the use of firearms and it is almost the first thing they purchase and take to all the New Settlements and in the Cities you scarcely find a lad of 12 years that does not go a gunning." And there we are it is a national trait and past-time since the beginning. How can we expect that to change? "The three cornerstones upon which the pioneer Americans built this nation were firearms, the axe and the plow but of the three firearms were the most dramatic and appealed most to the popular imagination."
The book is mainly about the business of guns, Winchester family business and Winchester repeating rifles. But by the 1980's "times were tough in the rifle business. Americans were buying far fewer firearms than they did in the 1960's and 1970's. Declining crime rates, shrinking space for hunting, tighter gun-control laws, economic hard times for blue-collar workers and a waning interest from young people in hunting and target shooting led to a slowdown in sales." The family sold the business to a corporation. But gun sales have picked up in more recent times with the threat of more gun control laws making people think they won't be able to get or keep their guns. Like tobacco, making and selling guns is one of those businesses that humans made a lot of money doing because other humans were enticed to think they needed tobacco and guns.
There was one whole chapter on Sarah Winchester and her house in San Jose, California. According to the author who is a descendent of the Winchester's, Sarah was not the loony old lady she is reputed to have been. She was grief stricken from her loss of her husband and child but she had the money and she liked architecture and building. She sought solitude because of the gossip. Her real legacy is the money she gave to a hospital in New Haven at Yale for lung disorders that is still helping people today. If you can put aside the crazy stories invented by the people who bought her house and wanted to make money out of it, it is an interesting place to visit when you are in the area.
An interesting book for the most part and almost makes you think guns are OK for sport but of course the killing part can't be ignored. You can call them firearms but they really are weapons of destruction.
August 18, 2018
The first problem was that I started this thinking it was "The Gunning of America" by Pamela Haag which is what I thought I was getting. My bad. Even so I set to reading with anticipation of an interesting experience. Laura Trevelyan is a respected journalist for the BBC (as well as a direct descendant of Oliver Winchester, the founder of the eponymous firm) and I am familiar with her work. Maybe I should have noticed that the publisher is Yale University Press (2016). Finally, perhaps I should have been more wary of a writer enraptured with her own genealogy. ("A Very British Family: The Trevelyans and their World," (2006). But this book seemed more self-serving than objective.
Heaven knows Trevelyan's Winchester people are very darned interesting. The story of how the firm was built and its subsequent demise, its bones picked over by a number of carrion companies, is an American saga. The accomplishments of both male and female members are significant. Her effort to resurrect the reputation of great-great-auntie Sarah Pardee Winchester, who built the extraordinary pile in San Jose now called the "Winchester Mystery House," a vast collection of rooms, stairs and hallways to nowhere that comes into its own on Halloween, is understandable. It's just that Trevelyan can't seem to find the compelling narratives in the darker aspects of the personalities and is set on finding the silver lining in every cloudy character. Nor is she adept at inserting herself editorially or personally into the account without it being both obtrusive and annoying.
Honestly it was a bit of a slog and I found myself simply unwilling to read long passages quoted directly from the Winchester business documents and related materials. Trevelyan, moreover, seems uncertain exactly what this book is or should be and organization is a problem. While she sets up a chronological ark, she also digresses from it, jumping ahead of the story and wandering off into tangents that require substantial back story. I found myself persistently double checking dates or referring to her family tree--which truly didn't really need to extend all the way down to her children's generation. A list of key players not members of the family or a timeline of the firms constantly changing fortunes would have been much more useful. A more complete index would have been appreciated--I found myself trying to go back and revisit names and whatnot and they had not been deemed sufficiently important to include.
Is it worth a read? Absolutely, particularly if you are a gun enthusiast, anyone interested in the emergence of the class of economic barons in America in the 19th century, the mythology of the Wild West, or a devotee of anything Connecticut. For me, though, it wasn't a fun read or even an intellectually satisfying one. Should have paid attention and gotten Pamela Haag's book.
Heaven knows Trevelyan's Winchester people are very darned interesting. The story of how the firm was built and its subsequent demise, its bones picked over by a number of carrion companies, is an American saga. The accomplishments of both male and female members are significant. Her effort to resurrect the reputation of great-great-auntie Sarah Pardee Winchester, who built the extraordinary pile in San Jose now called the "Winchester Mystery House," a vast collection of rooms, stairs and hallways to nowhere that comes into its own on Halloween, is understandable. It's just that Trevelyan can't seem to find the compelling narratives in the darker aspects of the personalities and is set on finding the silver lining in every cloudy character. Nor is she adept at inserting herself editorially or personally into the account without it being both obtrusive and annoying.
Honestly it was a bit of a slog and I found myself simply unwilling to read long passages quoted directly from the Winchester business documents and related materials. Trevelyan, moreover, seems uncertain exactly what this book is or should be and organization is a problem. While she sets up a chronological ark, she also digresses from it, jumping ahead of the story and wandering off into tangents that require substantial back story. I found myself persistently double checking dates or referring to her family tree--which truly didn't really need to extend all the way down to her children's generation. A list of key players not members of the family or a timeline of the firms constantly changing fortunes would have been much more useful. A more complete index would have been appreciated--I found myself trying to go back and revisit names and whatnot and they had not been deemed sufficiently important to include.
Is it worth a read? Absolutely, particularly if you are a gun enthusiast, anyone interested in the emergence of the class of economic barons in America in the 19th century, the mythology of the Wild West, or a devotee of anything Connecticut. For me, though, it wasn't a fun read or even an intellectually satisfying one. Should have paid attention and gotten Pamela Haag's book.
May 27, 2020
The author of this book is a descendant from the family and this is more of the family story. When the business came to be and when it was at its peck. She does not look into any of the guns themselves this is mainly just about the different family members who were responsible for the operation of the company and keeping it going.
She does go into the Winchester house in San Jose and gives her opinion about all of the stories. I won’t go into all of that. What I did like was the rise of the company and then the struggle to keep it at a level of success. Where it failed and when the family started seeing they could not hang onto it even after asking for help they had to sell off or go into bankruptcy. The story of the company was interesting as well as her story of her great aunts that she used to visit, those I found very interesting. A good book about a company that helped changed the west. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 3 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com
She does go into the Winchester house in San Jose and gives her opinion about all of the stories. I won’t go into all of that. What I did like was the rise of the company and then the struggle to keep it at a level of success. Where it failed and when the family started seeing they could not hang onto it even after asking for help they had to sell off or go into bankruptcy. The story of the company was interesting as well as her story of her great aunts that she used to visit, those I found very interesting. A good book about a company that helped changed the west. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 3 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com
November 15, 2025
Not bad, fills in some gaps for the gun historian.
October 21, 2016
The place of guns in American history and culture is assured but is sometimes puzzling to less gun-obsessed countries, so I found this account of the Winchester Repeating Rifle deeply fascinating – the “Gun That Won the West” as it is often referred to. Author Laura Trevelyan is a descendant of the Winchester business dynasty and the book is as much a family history as an exploration of the manufacture of firearms, so works on two levels. First made in New Haven, Connecticut, the Winchester has sold in the hundreds of thousands all over the world, but has a special place in America and is the defining image of the American frontier. Trevelyan doesn’t explore the moral or ethical impact of the Winchester – that’s not her story – but the reader inevitably has to confront some difficult issues. But just as Trevelyan herself was, it’s all too easy to get caught up in the somewhat romantic myth of the gunman in American history, not to mention the rise of a business dynasty, so those troubling questions have to be put temporarily aside whilst reading this well-researched and well told story of this iconic gun and its makers.
April 22, 2017
Not exactly what I expected. As the author says if you are looking for more information on the products of the Winchester Co there are better books out there.
If you would love a chapter plus on the interior decorations of the Winchester House this is the book for you.
If you would love a chapter plus on the interior decorations of the Winchester House this is the book for you.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews