{"product_id":"2940177915296","title":"Tommy: The Gun That Changed America","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe fascinating and topical nonfiction story of how one gun changed American courtrooms, streets, and homes, told for a YA audience by award-winning author Karen Blumenthal\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn Taliaferro Thompson had a mission: to develop a lightweight, fast-firing weapon that would help Americans win on the battlefield. His Thompson submachine gun could deliver a hundred bullets in a matter of seconds-but didn't find a market in the U.S. military. Instead, the Tommy gun became the weapon of choice for a generation of bootleggers and bank-robbing outlaws, and became a deadly American icon. Following a bloody decade-and eighty years before the mass shootings of our own time-Congress moved to take this weapon off the streets, igniting a national debate about gun control.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCritically-acclaimed author Karen Blumenthal, author of*\u003ci\u003eBootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition, Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History,\u003c\/i\u003e*and*\u003ci\u003eSix Days in October: The Stock Market Crash of 1929\u003c\/i\u003e, reveals the fascinating story of this famous and deadly weapon-of the lives it changed, the debate it sparked, and the unprecedented response it inspired in*\u003ci\u003eTommy: The Gun That Changed America\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for Tommy: The Gun that Changed America:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The Thompson rapid-firing submachine gun is the crux of Blumenthal's accessible social history, which encompasses military weaponry, gangster warfare, and gun-control legislation. . . . Engrossing and grisly.” -\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Blumenthal's fascinating biography of the weapon is most dramatic in its chapters on the famous gangsters. . . . A gripping look at guns, gangsters, and finding the `right balance between individual freedoms and community safety.'” -\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46295254139121,"sku":"2940177915296","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/5433\/7265\/files\/2940177915296_p0.jpg?v=1765393635","url":"https:\/\/shop.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940177915296","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble","version":"1.0","type":"link"}