The Hidden History of Guns and the Se..., Thom Hartmann
The Hidden History of Guns and the Se..., Thom Hartmann
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The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment

Author: Thom Hartmann

Narrator: Scott Brick

Unabridged: 4 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 06/04/2019


Synopsis

"In this precise primer on firearms practices and policies, progressive talk-show host Hartmann examines the history of routine gun usage and extreme gun violence and assesses the influence of gun ownership on contemporary political, economic, and social norms...A brief but powerful analysis of a searing national crisis." -Booklist

Taking his typically in-depth, historically informed view, Thom Hartmann examines how guns have played important roles throughout American history, from early European settlement to the Revolutionary War and Manifest Destiny, through the use of Slave Patrols in the Deep South (which became the "well-regulated militias" so debated in 1787), to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and recent school massacres.

Looking at the present, Hartmann documents how inequality in America and the number of people killed in mass shootings have grown together over the last fifty years. Finally, he identifies a handful of common-sense and powerful solutions that would address the issue at different levels: from getting money out of politics to get the National Rifle Association out of lobbying, to passing laws that would treat gun ownership like car ownership (title, license, insurance), to addressing the social despair and economic inequality that drive violent crime and mass shootings.

About Thom Hartmann

Thom Hartmann is the four-time Project Censored Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five books currently in print in over a dozen languages on five continents. Hartmann is also an internationally known speaker on culture and communications, an author, and an innovator in the fields of psychiatry, ecology, and economics.

The cofounder (with his wife, Louise) and former Executive Director of The New England Salem Children's Village (1978) and The Hunter School (1997), he has led national innovations in the areas of residential treatment for abused children and private/public education for learning-disabled children.

He has helped set up hospitals, famine relief programs, schools, and refugee centers in India, Uganda, Australia, Colombia, Russia, and the United States through the German-based Salem International program. Formerly rostered with the State of Vermont as a psychotherapist, founder of The Michigan Healing Arts Center, and licensed as an NLP Trainer by Richard Bandler (who wrote the foreword to one of Thom's books), he was the originator of the revolutionary "Hunter/Farmer Hypothesis" to understand the psychiatric condition known as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).

A guest faculty member at Goddard College in Vermont, he also synthesized the "Younger/Older Culture model" for describing the underpinnings-and possible solutions-to the world's ecological and socio-political crises, suggesting that many of our problems are grounded in cultural "stories" which go back thousands of years.

Leonardo DiCaprio was inspired by Thom's book The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight to make the movie "The 11th Hour" (in which Thom appears), and a series of environmental videos narrated by Hartmann and DiCaprio, available at Green World Rising.

Talkers Magazine named Thom Hartmann as the most important progressive talk show host in America for the past decade, and for three of the past five years the #1 most important progressive host, in their "Heavy Hundred" ranking. His radio show is syndicated on for-profit radio stations nationwide by WYD Media, on non-profit and community stations nationwide by Pacifica, across the entire North American continent on SiriusXM Satellite radio, on cable systems nationwide by Cable Radio Network (CRN) and Free Speech TV, on its own YouTube channel, via subscription podcasts, worldwide through the US American Forces Network, and through the Thom Hartmann App in the App Store. The radio show is also simulcast as TV in realtime into nearly 60 million US and Canadian homes by the Free Speech TV Network on Dish Network, DirectTV, and cable TV systems nationwide.

As an entrepreneur, he's founded several successful businesses which still are operating, and lived and worked with his wife, Louise, and their three (now adult) children on several continents.

He was born and grew up in Michigan, and retains strong ties to the Midwest, although he and Louise have lived in New Hampshire, Vermont, Georgia, Germany, Washington DC, and Oregon.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Clif on November 08, 2022

I'm old enough to recall Jack Webb in the TV show Dragnet asking for "just the facts, Ma'm" when interviewing a witness to a crime who was running on with irrelevant information. The public scene on any important topic is loaded with uninformed opinions, clever phrases that in their simplicity catch......more

Goodreads review by Kate on January 21, 2020

This concise, easily readable account of the history and current laws related to gun ownership was both informative and helpful to me in understanding how we got to where we are today. Hartmann's position in writing about this issue is enhanced by the fact that he is a gun owner himself (for target......more

Goodreads review by Debra on October 30, 2019

Well-researched and written, this book takes us back to the beginning of the gun culture in the United States. It's an interesting way to take the gun issue, but just glancing at some of the reviews, I realize we are not a nation of readers that likes history, real history, not the made up stuff of......more

Goodreads review by Ray on September 05, 2019

This book gave me a whole different perspective concerning guns, gun ownership and the Constitution. I liked the concise chapters and the author's grasp of history. Read for understanding!......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on April 10, 2023

This is an incredibly important book. I subscribe to Thom Hartmann's Substack blog, and he shared the introduction and foreword of this book last week. I immediately hit my library up for the eBook edition. Hartmann delves deep into the (extremely racist) history of the 2nd Amendment, the purpose of w......more