Arming America presents a revisionist account arguing that widespread private gun ownership in the United States emerged later than commonly believed. Michael A. Bellesiles uses archival research to show that firearms were once scarce, regulated, and not widely available to ordinary colonists or early Americans.

The narrative follows technological and economic changes in the nineteenth century — growing domestic arms manufacture, repeating firearms, and the impact of the Civil War, when production and soldiers retaining weapons helped normalize private ownership. The book examines government policy, gunsmithing, and cultural shifts that together forged a distinct American gun culture.

Useful for historians, students of public policy, and readers curious about the origins of contemporary debates, the work connects industrial change and military experience to long-term social transformation.

• Coverage: Colonial era to post–Civil War
• Themes: manufacturing, technology, policy
• Approach: archival research and historical synthesis

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