I am a firearms historian based in Baton Rouge, LA.
I hold a history degree from North Carolina State University where I chose to write my thesis on the evolution of the American firearms industry in the late 1850’s and early 1860’s. My focus was on Smith & Wesson and its seminal Model 1 revolver, but my research has expanded into the worlds of Samuel Colt, Simeon North, Robert Johnson, Rollin White, and a dizzying array of other gun makers, engineers, craftsmen, lawyers, politicians, and crooks.
I’m particularly interested in how Smith & Wesson’s rise fits into Alfred Chandler’s theories about management and the rise of the modern enterprise, and how this intersects with the rapid advances in metalworking and machine tools over the first half of the 19th century. I also examine a parallel shift in how patents were being increasingly leveraged by large enterprises to maintain monopolies.
I was born and raised in southern Ontario.