Crusade - Rick Atkinson

"Thrilling. Simply the best story to date of the Gulf War." DETROIT FREE PRESS "If you are going to read only one book about the Gulf War, 'Crusade', because of its rich human detail and skilful writing, should be it." SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE "Fascinating." GLASGOW HERALD "Tremendous accumulation of detail and colour. Atkinson adduces witnesses from every level: foot soldiers, pilots, generals, policy-makers. We are treated to almost every significant conversation that took place between American participants during the conflict that isn't classified, and probably a few that are. Atkinson provides an antidote to the propagandists, poseurs and idle speculators who have, together with the writers of self-serving memoirs, dominated subsequent discussion of this war as they have so many wars before. forces us to reassess both events and reputations." LITERARY REVIEW "Transfixes us with a crackling-fast, richly reported, absorbing, you-are-there techno-thriller of a military history of the war. You will not be tempted to put it down. An astute and sympathetic, though out glorifying, account, paced so as to hurl the reader from one scene to the next. Sometimes war happens. And in the hands of a fine writer the battle itself makes a horrible and compelling story." LOS ANGELES TIMES "An excellent account. Contains much interesting material that was suppressed at the time. Atkinson tells the central story as well as it can be told today." THE ECONOMIST "Succeeds masterfully. An important book that debunks the myth of Schwarzkopf. Atkinson pierces the Pentagon's veil of secrecy and gives us a first-rate book about how the war was fought." CHICAGO TRIBUNE.