This book rounds out my two most used reference sources (the other being Iannamico’s “AK-47: The Grim Realer) when it comes to looking for photos on AKs plus other assault rifles.

Coming in at over eight pounds and 1200 pages, this book has a ton of photos, very clear text and is organized by country.   The book covers over 500 weapons from 51 countries with over 1,000 photos in fact and was a massive research effort.

Without a doubt, it covers a ton of material and what I like is that it is well organized.  There is a good table of contents up front and a detailed index at the end.  You can go search by country alphabetically even.  This is one of those books, where you can even just flip it open and learn something.

There are special sections on operating principles, ammunition as well as more detailed write ups on certain weapons of interest such as the German FG-42 and Sturmgewehr, the Russian AK family, and US arms such as the BAR, Lewis, M1 Carbine and M16/M4 family.

This is definitely an excellent reference book