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The Shield of Faith: A Chronicle of Strategic Defense from Zeppelins to Star Wars
Chronicles the history of air defense efforts, from the first bombers in World War I, to the rise of radar, the SALT and ABM treaties, and Star Wars
- GenresMilitary History
454 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 13, 2025
- Only about 50 of the 450 pages in the book contained meaningful information content. There was some good stuff about BM and ABM technology, the politics of ABM, and various plans or strategies.
- The 400 remaining pages were incomprehensible drivel.
- Criticizing without offering a solution is called complaining. Many of the 400 pages were streams of complaints about this strategist, that strategist, this strategy, and that strategy; minimal text was dedicated to FULLY addressing opposing arguments and supposedly nonsense strategies. Even worse the author never provides a clear, meaningful insight to address the issues he puts forth.
- Labeling the book a "chronicle" is a wonderful cop-out to criticize the opposition and avoid making a clear argument.
- The remainder of the 400 pages reads like a personal diary discussing peoples purported leanings, motivations, and personal beliefs. Providing a background on an individual is great, but the author seems to ramble on ad nauseam.
- The irreverent style was entertaining for the first 100 pages, and then it wasn't.
- The 400 remaining pages were incomprehensible drivel.
- Criticizing without offering a solution is called complaining. Many of the 400 pages were streams of complaints about this strategist, that strategist, this strategy, and that strategy; minimal text was dedicated to FULLY addressing opposing arguments and supposedly nonsense strategies. Even worse the author never provides a clear, meaningful insight to address the issues he puts forth.
- Labeling the book a "chronicle" is a wonderful cop-out to criticize the opposition and avoid making a clear argument.
- The remainder of the 400 pages reads like a personal diary discussing peoples purported leanings, motivations, and personal beliefs. Providing a background on an individual is great, but the author seems to ramble on ad nauseam.
- The irreverent style was entertaining for the first 100 pages, and then it wasn't.
November 16, 2007
I have read this book several times over now. It's a considerably enjoyable read, well researched and well told. The essential core of the book is the story of a loose group of American scientists and soldiers trying to protect the country from nuclear attack, first by bombers, but primarily from ICBM's. What's interesting is that at several junctures the technology was adequate for a reasonable missile shield, and that at one point, though only for several months, we had a functioning ABM system protecting one of our own ICBM fields in North Dakota (Safeguard).
There's a lot to be learned about the nature of projects or efforts that by necessity cross lines of responsibility between different agencies and scientific disciplines. This is, in my view, as good an illustration of the failure to act in concert as it is a story of strategic defense.
The book is a bit dated in that it stops just as Reagan's SDI was getting under way, and I would love to see Briggs' take on the last 25 years of missile defense.
There's a lot to be learned about the nature of projects or efforts that by necessity cross lines of responsibility between different agencies and scientific disciplines. This is, in my view, as good an illustration of the failure to act in concert as it is a story of strategic defense.
The book is a bit dated in that it stops just as Reagan's SDI was getting under way, and I would love to see Briggs' take on the last 25 years of missile defense.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews