Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the Washington Institute Silver Book Prize
Universally received as an important work by the best military analyst writing today, the inside story of the small group of soldier-scholars who—against fierce resistance from within their own ranks—changed the way the Pentagon does business and the American military fights wars. The insurgents made the US military more adaptive, but their self-confidence led us deeper into wars we would have done better to avoid.
Based on previously unavailable documents and interviews with more than 100 key characters, including the group’s ringleader, General David Petraeus, The Insurgents unfolds against the backdrop of two wars waged against insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the main insurgency is the one led at home by a new generation of officers—Petraeus, John Nagl, David Kilcullen, and H.R. McMaster—who were seized with an idea on how to fight these kinds of “small wars,” and who adapted their enemies’ techniques to overhaul their own Army. Fred Kaplan explains where their idea came from and how the men and women who latched onto this idea created a community (some would refer to themselves as a “cabal”), which maneuvered the idea through the highest echelons of power.
This is a cautionary tale about how creative ideas can harden into dogma, how smart strategists—“the best and the brightest” of today—can win bureaucratic battles but still lose the wars.
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"There is no one better equipped to tell the story. ... Kaplan, a rare combination of defense intellectual and pugnacious reporter … knows the military world inside and out. ... An authoritative, gripping and somewhat terrifying account of how the American military approached two major wars in the combustible Islamic world." Thanassis Cambaniss
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"One of the very best books ever written about the American military in the era of small wars. ... Fred Kaplan brings a formidable talent for writing intellectual history." The New York Times Book Review
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“Serious and insightful. … The Insurgents seems destined to be one of the more significant looks at how the US pursued the war in Iraq and at the complex mind of the general in charge when the tide turned.” John Barry - The Daily Beast
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"Excellent ... An intellectual thriller." < b=""> Dexter Filkins <> - < -="" b="" -=""> - < -="" i="" -=""> - The New Yorker - < -="" -=""> - < -="" -="">
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"Riveting...essential reading... Kaplan's meticulous account of the ways Petraeus found to bring together and nurture the counterinsurgency 'cabal' might profitably be read by anyone interested in bringing change to a giant bureaucracy." Dexter Filkins - The New Yorker
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"A very readable, thoroughly reported account of how, in American military circles, 'counterinsurgency' became a policy instead of a dirty word." Tony Perry - Los Angeles Times
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“Excellent … Poignant and timely. … A good read, rich in texture and never less than wise.” Janet Maslin - The New York Times
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"A compelling story combined with thoughtful analysis of the development, application and limitations of a new model of applying American military power." Rosa Brooks - Foreign Policy
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"The Insurgents is a tremendously clear and informative guide to the strengths and weaknesses of the military we have today and to the decisions we are about to make. … Anyone who reads The Insurgents will be better prepared to understand what America has done right and wrong with its military over the past generation." Dexter Filkins - The New Yorker
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"Compelling" Tony Perry - Los Angeles Times
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"Excellent ... An intellectual thriller." James Fallows, The American Prospect
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"Compelling"
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"Fred Kaplan is one of the best in the business, a top-notch journalist and military analyst with serious intellectual chops and a killer pen.
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"A fascinating and powerful work by America's wisest national-security reporter about an epic battle: the Army's search for a way to win the wars of the 21st century. If you love your country, if you care about its soldiers, if you wonder about the wisdom of their commanders, read this book now." Gideon Rose, editor, Foreign Affairs, and author of How Wars End
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“Fred Kaplan, one of the best military journalists we have, tells the compelling story of how a cadre of officers and civilians tried to rescue victory from defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan by putting the theory of counterinsurgency into practice, revolutionizing the US Army from within. His narrative is vividand revelatory, dramatizing a crucial piece of recent history that we shouldn't allow ourselves to forget, however painful the memory.” Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA and Enemies: A History of the FBI
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"Compelling" The New York Times Book Review
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“Fred Kaplan has written a dazzling, compulsively readable book. Let's start with the fact that it is so well written, a quality so often lacking in books describing counterinsurgency. Let's also throw in the facts that it is both deeply researched and also devoid of cheerleading for the military or indeed any other kind of political bias. This book will join a small shelf of the most important accounts of the wars America has fought and will likely continue to fight in the 21st century.” Kirkus Reviews
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"Fred Kaplan is one of the best in the business, a top-notch journalist and military analyst with serious intellectual chops and a killer pen. His new book The Insurgents tells the story of the rise and fall of the COINdinistas from Iraq to Afghanistan and beyond, and it's not only a great read—it's a major contribution to one of the most important strategic debates of our time.” Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt: the Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad
Synopsis
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
The Insurgents tells the inside story of the small group of soldier-scholars, led by Gen. David Petraeus, who plotted to revolutionize the oldest, stodgiest institution in America—the military. Working from secret documents, private emails, and interviews with more than one hundred key characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Fred Kaplan details how these men and women forged a community (a “cabal,” some of them called it), manipulated the bureaucracy, and changed official policy.
This is a story of power, politics, ideas, and personalities—and how they converged to reshape twenty-first century warfare. It is also a cautionary tale about how creative doctrine can harden into dogma and how smart strategists—todays “best and brightest”— can win the battles at home but not the wars abroad. Petraeus and his fellow insurgents made the US military more adaptive to the conflicts of the modern era, but they also created the tools—made it more tempting—for political leaders to wade into wars that they would have been wise to avoid.
About the Author
Fred Kaplan writes the “War Stories” column in Slate and has also written many articles on politics and culture in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications. A former Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for The Boston Globe, he is also the author of 1959, Daydream Believers, and The Wizards of Armageddon. He graduated from Oberlin College and has a PhD from MIT. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Brooke Gladstone.