Jim Dunnigan

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James F. Dunnigan (born 8 August 1943) is an author and wargame designer currently living in New York City, notable for his matter-of-fact approach to military analysis.

Born in Rockland County, New York, after high school, he volunteered for the military instead of waiting to be drafted. From 1961 to 1964, he worked as a repair technician for the Sergeant ballistic missile, which included a tour in Korea. Afterwards, he attended Pace University studying accounting, then transferred to Columbia University, graduating with a degree in history in 1970.

While still in college, he got involved in wargaming. He designed Jutland, which Avalon Hill published in 1967, following it up with 1914 the next year, and the groundbreaking Panzerblitz in 1970, which eventually sold half a million copies. Meanwhile, he had founded his own company, Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI), which issued games and published the magazine Strategy & Tactics.

Between 1966 and 1992, he designed over 100 wargames and other conflict simulations, ranging from 1969's Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker about the student takeover at Columbia (which he witnessed as a bystander), to the gigantic War in Europe, to the online Hundred Years' War, which has been running since 1992.

In 1979, he wrote his first book, The Complete Wargames Handbook, still considered a definitive work, and in 1980 How to Make War.

He also regularly gives lectures to the military, and has appeared on television as a commentator on military subjects.

[edit] Books

(with Austin Bay) A Quick & Dirty Guide to War: Briefings on Present and Potential Wars
Digital Soldiers St. Martin's Press, 1996. ISBN 0-312-14588-8.
(with Albert Nofi) Dirty Little Secrets: American Military Information You're Not Supposed to Know, St. Martins Press, 1999. ISBN 0-312-19857-4.
Dirty Little Secrets of the 20th Century: Myths, Misinformation, and Unknown Truths About the 20th Century, William Morrow & Company, 1999. ISBN 0-688-17068-4.
(with Albert Nofi) Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War: Military Information You're Not Supposed to Know
(with Albert Nofi) Dirty Little Secrets of World War II: Military Information No One Told You About the Greatest, Most Terrible War in History
(with Austin Bay) From Shield to Storm: High-Tech Weapons, Military Strategy and Coalition Warfare in the Persian Gulf
(with Raymond M. Macedonia) Getting It Right: American Military Reforms After Vietnam to the Gulf War and Beyond
How to Make War: A Comprehensive Guide to Modern Warfare for the Post-Cold War Era, William Morrow & Company, 3rd edition, 1993. ISBN 0-688-12157-8
(with William Martel) How to Stop a War: The Lessons of Two Hundred Years of War and Peace
(with Albert Nofi) Medieval Life and the Hundred Years War (200,000 word online book)
(with Albert Nofi) Shooting Blanks: War Making That Doesn't Work
(with Albert Nofi) The Pacific War Encyclopedia
The Complete Wargames Handbook: How to Play, Design and Find Them Revised edition, William Morrow & Company, 1992. ISBN 0-688-10368-5
The Complete Wargames Handbook: How to Play, Design and Find Them online version
(with Daniel Masterson) The Way of the Warrior: Business Tactics and Techniques from History's Twelve Greatest Generals
(with Albert Nofi) Victory and Deceit: Dirty Tricks at War
(with Albert Nofi) Victory at Sea: World War II in the Pacific. William Morrow & Company, 1995. ISBN 0-688-14947-2
The Perfect Soldier. Citadel Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8065-2416-2
Foreword to H.G. Well's Floor Games (Skirmisher Publishing LLC, 2006)