Dunnigan and Bay's From Shield to Storm is one of the most easily dismissed works on the war. The book presents a cursory, incomplete view of the war's causes and then jumps right into an equally sketchy account of events. The majority of the work appears to be empty space surrounding pretentious subject headings like "The Reconnaissance Advantage" or more humorous sections like "Er, I Believe That's One of Ours." The occasional paragraph or two that intrudes on the section headings by and large contain a few broad, glib statements. The writers then immediately skip to the next section preventing the reader from glorying in the mediocrity of their thoughts.

The list of previous works by the authors lists Dunnigan as the author of The Complete Wargames Handbook. The book certainly has more appeal as a simple guide for wargaming the conflict than as "The place" for "...history, historians, and readers...to start...." The book is full of analysis, but this analysis is unsupported by evidence and follows standard military cliches. Moreover the authors not only display little knowledge of any of the non-American forces in the region, they actually appear annoyed when they must leave their discussion of high-tech toys to address the events that involved them.

The book is written in a very easily understood style, but the chapters are poorly organized. The writers also show a poor grasp of Middle Eastern Affairs in their poorly thought out "scenarios" detailing the possible results of the Gulf War. The final irony in the work is the brief two paragraphs that are laughingly entitled "Sources and Further Reading." The final two lines read "Unfortunately, for a subject like this, most of the books with a broad perspective haven't been written yet. Except for this one." Fortunately, for the serious student, that is not the case.

More Gulf War Literature Survey

Introduction
A Woman at War Review.
Famous Victory Review.
From Shield to Storm Review.
Desert Shield to Desert Storm Review.

A Survey of Gulf War Literature Part II

Triumph Without Victory Review.
It Doesn't Take a Hero Review.
Desert Victory Review.
The Gulf Confict 1990-1991 Review.