Encyclopedia of the Persian Gulf War - Hardcover

More than 110 entries deal with persons, weapons, and issues of the war. The entries vary from a paragraph to several pages in length. Longer entries contain numerous subsections. For example, the nine-page entry Diplomacy has five subsections, including coverage of diplomacy prior to the invasion of Kuwait, after the invasion, during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and the cease-fire negotiations. Throughout the text, there are abundant cross-references, as well as approximately 7 line maps and 23 black-and-white photographs.

The entries are followed by a 28-page chronology that covers events from 1958 through 1991. A short bibliography contains 55 items, including a joint PBS/BBC video documentary, several items from a British perspective, and a Web site. Most of the bibliography copyright dates are from 1991 to 1993, with the most current being a single entry from 1996. Rounding out the volume is an index. There are no entries in the index for illustrations or maps.

There are many books on the Persian Gulf War but only a few that are comparable to this. Two sources listed in the bibliography are The Encyclopedia of the Persian Gulf War by Grossman [RBB Ap 15 96] and Persian Gulf War Almanac by Summers [RBB My 1 95]. Both are far superior in terms of the number of maps and illustrations, and both have several hundred items listed in their bibliographies. Schwartz's volume is recommended as a supplement to the several excellent references already available.