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Title: Crusade
Subtitle: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War
Author: Rick Atkinson
Narrator: Jeff Riggenbach
Format: Unabridged
Length: 24 hrs and 36 mins
Language: English
Release date: 09-07-11
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 108 votes
Genres: History, Military
Publisher's Summary:
Throughout the Gulf War of 1991, unprecedented restrictions on the medias access to the battlefield kept the true story of that brief, brutal conflict from being told. Now, after two years of intensive research, Rick Atkinson has written what will surely come to be recognized as the definitive chronicle of the war.
Crusade follows the unfolding battle from the first night to the final day, providing vivid accounts of bombing runs and White House strategy sessions, fire-fights and bitter inter-service conflicts. Weaving individual stories into the larger narrative, Atkinson represents the allied campaign against Saddam Hussein as a wholly new kind of war, one that has transformed the nature of modern warfare.
Critic Reviews:
"An engrossing account. Rich in pertinent details, the powerful narrative leaps nimbly from Washington to Riyadh." (
Publishers Weekly)
Members Reviews:
A very decent account of the gulf war
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Yes. Gives a pretty detailed account of the sequence of events. I am actually a gulf war vet according to Congress' definition (no direct combat for me though), but I learned a lot of things I hadn't known about it from this book.
Could you see Crusade being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?
One sub-plot has sort of already been done with "Jarhead", but there are a lot of other things that could probably be turned into a movie. And it would probably be a pretty decent film if they did the whole thing.
Any additional comments?
One annoying thing is the author's unconcealed political grandstanding at various points. The book would have been a lot better if he could have restrained himself on that point.
I found the narrator to be good
What about Jeff Riggenbachs performance did you like?
I think the narrator is just fine. Ok, the occasional long pause makes me wonder if I'm about to get a phone call, but I'm not going to deducts points for that. To my ear, his pronunciations are correct.
I'm mainly writing this because I nearly skipped over this audible book because of the negative comments. I am glad I didn't.
Great account of Desert Shield/Storm
Would you consider the audio edition of Crusade to be better than the print version?
No. In fact, I got most of the way through this, then ordered it in hardcover.
What did you like best about this story?
Atkinson has a knack for finding a perfect middle-ground between The War as an event run by entire coalitions of governments and massive military units on the one side, and the troops in the proverbial trenches on the other side. It is therefore more readable than a history of politics and policy or of divisional maneuvers and terrain, while being broader in scope than, say, Jarhead. Stylistically, his writing brings things to life while giving the "big picture" history.
Have you listened to any of Jeff Riggenbachs other performances before? How does this one compare?
This was my first. As other reviewers have doubtlessly pointed out, he mispronounces household names like Dick Cheney and Colin Powell. He also pronounces Arabic place names oddly; though "Sa-OO-di" may well be technically correct, it's not how anyone pronounced it when I was there twice with Operation Southern Watch.
