triticale - the wheat / rye guy

False Premise - Failed Book

James R. Rummel has spotted copies of Bellesisle's work of historical fiction, Arming America, selling for not much more than any random hardcover at a yard sale.

I had a thought just the previous day about the notion the book espoused, that the weapons industry which sprung up during the ACW created a gun culture so that they could keep selling their products. Manufacturing capacity can actually be redirected more easily than a nation's culture. Artillery manufacturers didn't convince ranchers to buy cannon. They took their boring lathes and used them to produce steam engine cylinders. Mason and Rodgers, two Civil War cannon makers which made this transition, produced some of the best looking locomotives of the late 19th century. This same pattern continues to this day. Husqvarna, initially a firearms maker, now produces chainsaws and lawnmowers. Heckler and Koch, once a sewing machine manufacturer, now produces firearms. It is only in leftist managed economies and leftist fantasies of how capitalism works that factories can pump out product which nobody wants.