Surge

"The definitive account. . . . A fascinating combination of grand strategy and personal vignettes."—Max Boot, Wall Street Journal

"Lively and vivid. Recommended for readers with an interest in military history and strategy or the challenges of nation building."—Kirkus Reviews

"Scholars of military history and students of national security affairs will find Surge an invaluable resource. The book is highly readable despite its impressive scholarship and sourcing, and benefits from its author’s professional training as an historian and his rigorous analytical approach . . . . No one seriously interested in the complexities of strategic thinking in general or this conflict, and America’s ongoing struggle to coherently link its policy aims to actionable plans, can overlook Mansoor’s analysis or conclusions."—War on the Rocks blog

"Indispensable. . . . Surge should be in any serious reader's short stack of books on the war in Iraq."—Mark Kukis, Michigan War Studies Review

Runner-up for the 2013 Southern California Book Festival, in the Biography/Autobiography category, sponored by JM Northern Media LLC

Won a Honorable Mention for the 2014 Los Angeles Book Festival in the General Non-Fiction Category

Finalist for the 2013 Guggenheim-Prize in Military History

"By far the best account of the decisive campaign of the Iraq War, and the conduct of modern American counterinsurgency, and also the best account anywhere about the inner workings of contemporary Iraqi politics. This book will remain the seminal work on this important part of the American experience in Iraq for many years."—Conrad Crane, lead author of Army/Marine Corps Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency

"This is one of the best books to emerge from the Iraq War. I expect it will be remembered as one of the most insightful accounts from an insider of the key ‘surge’ phase of that conflict. The chapter on the Sunni Awakening especially stands out as a terrific overview of that critical development."—Thomas E. Ricks, author of Fiasco, The Gamble and The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today


"Few—VERY few—studies of military operations are authored by someone who combines the qualities of an outstanding scholar with the experience of having been the commanding general's executive officer. Mansoor tells the story of a very rare type of military operation: creating victory in the context not merely of ongoing defeat but imminent catastrophe. And he tells it like a scholar: no hero-worship, no pointing with pride and viewing with alarm."—Dennis Showalter, author of Patton and Rommel: Men of War in the Twentieth Century

"Peter Mansoor has shed fresh light and understanding on the U.S. experience in Iraq, illuminating war’s political nature as well as its human and psychological dimensions. Surge is a story of adaptation, which highlights the importance of continuously assessing complex situations and acting to seize and retain the initiative. It will be thought-provoking not only to all interested in the Iraq War, but also to those interested in how to lead change in large organizations and enterprises."—H. R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam