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The World of Beretta: An International Legend
by R.L. Wilson
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Random House (2000-11-07)
ISBN: 0375501495
EAN: 9780375501494
Dewy Decimal #: 338.768340945
Hardcover: 384 pages
Release Date: 2000-11-07
Condition: Very Good
Comments: 2000, 370 pages, Hardcover with dustjacket in protected mylar cover (removable). Book & Dustjacket are in Very Good/Excellent Condition. Book is completely intact with inside pages in Excellent Condition with no tears and with no notations (no pencil marks, no underlining, no highlighting, etc.) Fast Service. Books well packed.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
The oldest industrial firm and the oldest gunmaker in the world, Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta, S.p.A., launches its 475th anniversary with the publication of this lavish history and celebration of a unique world of fine guns. Beretta remains under the stewardship of its founding family, headed now by Ugo Gussalli Beretta and his sons, Pietro and Franco. Today the Beretta line of firearms and accessories reigns as one of the few international brands symbolic of unsurpassed quality. But no other firm goes back so far in history, or reaches so many corners of the globe, as Beretta.
The Italian company stands supreme partly because it is on the cutting edge--of design, quality, manufacture, performance, and style. Through the centuries, the family has guided the company in the transition from specialist gun-barrel makers to, in Napoleonic times, creator of sporting firearms, later adding military and law-enforcement arms and importing arms by Colt, Remington, S&W, and Winchester, still later developing one of the first international industrial enterprises.
The Beretta line is the firearms enthusiast's dream: self-loading pistols, rifles, and shotguns; bolt-action rifles; double-barrel over-and-under and side-by-side sporting rifles and shotguns; single-barrel trap guns; and from these, a refined line of premium-grade guns unsurpassed by any gunmaker in the world. All are created with the perfect melding of the most advanced, space-age, computer-generated production machinery, in concert with traditional hand craftsmanship, in the ancient gunmaking village of Gardone, Val Trompia.
In 1985, Beretta's classic Model 92 pistol was adopted as the M9, the official U.S. Armed Forces sidearm, following extensive competition with the designs of other companies, sessions that subjected the pistol to the most rigorous tests. The Model 92 is the most widely used self-loading pistol in law enforcement and the military in the world today.
Beretta shooters dominate national, international, and Olympic shotgun competitions, and are a commanding factor in the rapidly developing world of sporting clays.
This richly illustrated, beautifully presented work joins R. L. Wilson's other firearms classics: Colt: An American Legend; Winchester: An American Legend; The Peacemakers; Steel Canvas; Ruger & His Guns; and Buffalo Bill's Wild West--a collection of books that comprise an unsurpassed tribute to the art, craftsmanship, history, mechanics, performance, and romance unique to fine guns.
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Customer Reviews
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Not a research or history , mostly PR.
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-04-08
I bought the book hoping it would allow me to learn more about several older Beretta shotguns I own. Other than a table on dates of manufacture in the index, that used to be avilable on line for free, there was very little usable detailed information.
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A Must Have for Admirers of Beretta Firearms
Rating  (5)
Date: 2003-07-25
12 out of 14 customers found this reveiw helpful
R.L. Wilson has assembled a handsome, well-researched volume on the world's oldest and most respected maker of firearms, Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta. Beretta stands out for its superb Italian craftsmanship, durable quality and design. Beretta's reputation has earned it respect and Beretta supplies the standard sidearm of the U.S. Armed Forces, which is the 9mm M9. Too me there are few things that surpass the exquisite aesthetic appeal of the Beretta pistol, except maybe a beautiful blue-eyed blonde. I'm a Beretta owner, and it's often to be expected that a man claims his possession to be best, but when I'm in the market for another gun, I'm not getting a Smith & Wesson or a Ruger, I'm getting another Beretta. These guns are tried and true. So, whether you're a collector of these fine firearms or just an admirer, I wholeheartedly recommend this informative, illustrated and history-filled volume on Beretta firearms. Some other reviewer scoffed that this is book is merely an effort to create "a mystique and romance" about Beretta, but Beretta has earned this after nearly 500 years. Wilson just captures the essence of the "mystique." Sure this book is a coffee table tome, but it is beautifully illustrated and fun to read and skim through! I give it 4.5/5.0 stars.
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A Great Book For Beretta Aficionados
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-04-20
3 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
If you love all things Beretta, then you will appreciate this superb book. Wilson magically transports you through 475 years of history to Gardone, Val Trompia, Northern Italy, by way of some of the most delightful examples of the perfect blending of walnut, metal and handcrafted artistry.
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Don't buy it if your looking for facts
Rating  (2)
Date: 2003-02-01
5 out of 11 customers found this reveiw helpful
I had hoped this book would provide some useful information on older SO shotguns. The book devotes lots of pages to the subject, but it seems that almost all of the information is available through the old catalogs that are downloadable from Beretta.com. There seemed to be an effort by Wilson and Beard to build more romance and mystique into the Beretta brand, hey guys that's what Beretta has a marketing department for!This is a beautiful book for the coffee table but if your looking for a book with useful data then keep searching.
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kinda fluffy but beautifully illustrated w/ great background
Rating  (4)
Date: 2002-05-04
12 out of 14 customers found this reveiw helpful
It's beautifully illustrated and he relates many interesting and deliteful anocdotes about the Beretta family. Less attention is paid to the technical side, I do agree that Beretta firearms are uniformly of a high quality but Wilson's appaissels are uniformly glowing, fail to acknowledge some shortcomings (as gangarosa did) and are technically no more informative than the catalogs (which he excerpts from often). I read this book after reading Gene Gangarosa's Modern Beretta Firearms (which I also reviewed) and it compliments many of the shortcomings of the Gangarosa book. There is much more focus on their shotguns and sporting rifles. Unlike Gangarosa's book where Berettas are often talked about in relation to other inovations in firearms. Wilson's book is narrowly focused in talking only about Beretta products.The worst part about this book is when he talks about James Bond. It sounds like such a sales pitch because while he mentions that James Bond originally had a Beretta .25ACP pocket pistol he doesn't tell us what model (Model 418 which is out of production, perhaps the company wanted us to buy one of their fine current production pocket pistols?) and remarks that in the first movie Dr. No he had to replace it with "a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol." Like he couldn't possibly say another companies name (he even gets it wrong, Bond had a Walther PPK in .32ACP). There are other technical innacuracies. Your best option as a fan is to buy both Wilson's (the human side and colourful history) and Gangarosa's (the more technical and firearms hobbiest oriented) book. This one is well written and might have been the definitive beretta book if Wilson had Gangarosa's in depth knowledge. Why is this book the more sales pitch and coffee table-like book? It would seem that that would more likely describe the Gangarosa book because it was published by Stoeger (which is owned under Beretta holdings). I would read another Gangarosa book because he writes more generally of firearms history, hobby, and innovation but Wilson's book is of interest only to the fan.
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