MR. GATLING'S TERRIBLE MARVEL

 

MR. GATLING’S TERRIBLE MARVEL

By Julia Keller

Penguin

243 pgs

 

This is not only the biography of American inventor, Richard Jordan Gatling (Sept 12, 1818 to Feb 26, 1903) but that of America’s amazing evolution to the status of a world superpower in the 19th Century. Author Keller wonderfully depicts the agricultural world into which Gatling was born and then shows, through the episodes of his life, how that world around him changed propelled the ingenuity of the American people. Thousands of inventions were granted during those early years of that century of all manner of purpose from farming implements, to household doodads and ultimately weaponry.  

Keller invokes the spirit of the new country in the growth of its patent office, the birthing pains of the Civil War and the invariable marriage of the industrial revolution with that of military complex via weapons manufacturers. She dares question the naïveté of an age and the twisted moral philosophy of a man who invented a powerful killing machines in the hopes of ending a war. 

For lovers of American history, this is a must read.

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