Bellesiles book at a local bookstore. (vanity)

[jim_trent]

There were several of the hardcover books "Arming America, The Origins of a National Gun Culture" By MICHAEL A. BELLESILES at a small local bookstore (not a chain store). They were marked down from $30 to $7.50. I was not tempted.

I wonder if the publisher is taking it in the shorts on this or if the bookstore is. No, it wasn't in the "fiction" part of the store. It was on the markdown table.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Next time you visit this store, be sure to have a mouthfull of sugarless gum, eh ?

[CatoRenasci]

You should complain to the management that it is even being sold at all, it having been so thoroughly discredited that Bellesisles was fired from Emory U.

[m1911]

Actually, faked statistics aside, it's a pretty good book. The basic premise is that the US government very much wanted the citizens armed.

[Sender]

There should be a special section of every good bookstore for books that have been refuted, disproved and thoroughly discredited. Not necessarily to purchase, but to demonstrate that good quality paper will lie right there and let you print almost anything on it.

'Arming America' could be proudly displayed next to giants such as 'The Clinton Years: A Time of Honor' or 'Winning the War on Drugs'.

[FirstFlaBn]

The publisher is. Next time learn something about the book publishing business. Publishers essentially front books to bookstores. Interest in the overwhelming majority of books is short, peaking early and falling off rapidly. Publishers are responsible for shipping costs for returned books, so it's more profitable for them to heavily discount a book rather than pay to have it shipped back. The author gets paid for books sold (typically around 12-15% of the cover price), not printed. Publishers rely on a few big hits to finance their gamble on other titles. They are in essence renting shelf space from bookstores to encourage browsing.

A great example of the free market working - more books get published than would otherwise happen; more new authors get their first book published setting the stage for better work later; and with the best sellers subsidizing the flops, prices are lower than would be the case otherwise.

Is this a great country, or what?