Part I

"Triumph Without Victory"

In Triumph without Victory the editors and reporters of US News & World Report claim to have created "a new fonn of historiography" by combining "a dramatic journalistic sensibilitywith the rigorous demands of modern historical scholarship." The book is undoubtedly dramatic, and the writers clearly attempted to research the subject thoroughly, but, bluntly, the book fails in this objective.

While the work clearly fails to create "...a new form of historiography," it is excellent on a journalistic level. The book is well written and organized, with the work of the various contributors merging seemlessly together. The research is extensive, the staff relying on their own dispatches but also conducting massive numbers of interviews following the conflict. The work is not footnoted, the wealth of quotes are attributed in the text, though far too many of them are from an "aide" or "Pentagon sources." One of the works most useful features, at least for later writers, is a complete list of the text of the relevant UN resolutions.

The journalistic roots of the writers is apparent in their emphasis on "scoops" or surprises. The relative importance of these "key revelations" is debatable and this concentration detracts frommore important aspects of the war, such as Arab reactions to the conflict. The book in the end is an anthology of rewritten news stories, not history.

A Survey of Gulf War Literature

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