Glock: The Rise of America's Gun
Pistol-Packing By the Millions
A Viennese garage-tinkerer heard that the Austrian army wanted a new sidearm. He got down to work—with industrial plastic.
By DANIEL HORAN
In 1980, Gaston Glock was the manager of a car-radiator factory just outside Vienna. At home, he ran a side business in his garage, making knives and bayonets for the Austrian army. He lived in a comfortable though not overly prosperous way, all but unknown beyond his corner of Austria. He knew next to nothing about firearms. Less than 20 years later, he was the world's leading manufacturer of handguns, and the business born in his garage had annual revenues of more than $100 million.
If this improbable success story involved nothing more than technical innovation, Mr. Glock's ascent would no doubt still make for a compelling tale. But, as Paul M. Barrett reveals in "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun," there is more to the story. Much more, including political shenanigans, corporate corruption and an attempted assassination.
Mr. Barrett, a former writer for The Wall Street Journal and now an editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, brings a financial reporter's eye to the peculiar enterprise of making and selling guns. Like most successful businesses, Mr. Glock's benefited from good timing and good luck.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577149913689465528.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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I have yet to get this book. I have heard bits of these stories before but this book puts it all together.
Hope this is not a dupe - I did a search for Glock book and nothing recent came up.
Pistol-Packing By the Millions
A Viennese garage-tinkerer heard that the Austrian army wanted a new sidearm. He got down to work—with industrial plastic.
By DANIEL HORAN
In 1980, Gaston Glock was the manager of a car-radiator factory just outside Vienna. At home, he ran a side business in his garage, making knives and bayonets for the Austrian army. He lived in a comfortable though not overly prosperous way, all but unknown beyond his corner of Austria. He knew next to nothing about firearms. Less than 20 years later, he was the world's leading manufacturer of handguns, and the business born in his garage had annual revenues of more than $100 million.
If this improbable success story involved nothing more than technical innovation, Mr. Glock's ascent would no doubt still make for a compelling tale. But, as Paul M. Barrett reveals in "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun," there is more to the story. Much more, including political shenanigans, corporate corruption and an attempted assassination.
Mr. Barrett, a former writer for The Wall Street Journal and now an editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, brings a financial reporter's eye to the peculiar enterprise of making and selling guns. Like most successful businesses, Mr. Glock's benefited from good timing and good luck.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577149913689465528.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
---
I have yet to get this book. I have heard bits of these stories before but this book puts it all together.
Hope this is not a dupe - I did a search for Glock book and nothing recent came up.
