“The definitive account . . . A fascinating combination of grand strategy and personal vignettes” (Max Boot, The Wall Street Journal). Finalist for the 2013 Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History Surge is an insider’s view of the most decisive phase of the Iraq War. After exploring the dynamics of the war during its first three years, the book takes the reader on a journey to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where the controversial new US Army and Marine Corps counterinsurgency doctrine was developed; to Washington, DC, and the halls of the Pentagon, where the joint chiefs of staff struggled to understand the conflict; to the streets of Baghdad, where soldiers worked to implement the surge and reenergize the flagging war effort before the Iraqi state splintered; and to the halls of Congress, where Amb. Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus testified in some of the most contentious hearings in recent history. Using newly declassified documents, unpublished manuscripts, interviews, author notes, and published sources, Surge explains how President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Ambassador Crocker, General Petraeus, and other US and Iraqi political and military leaders shaped the surge from the center of the maelstrom in Baghdad and Washington. “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

As the surge of operations that American and Iraqi forces began on June 15, 2007, winds to a close, security in Baghdad and throughout Iraq has improved so dramatically that, for the first time in years, there is reason for optimism in Iraq. U.S. commanders and soldiers have reversed the negative slide that followed the Samarra mosque bombing in 2006, bringing the number of enemy attacks in Iraq back down to the levels of mid-2005. Yet the reasons for the reduction in violence and its strategic significance are subjects of continuing debate in the media and in Washington. Many armchair pundits make the gross oversimplification that the positive trends in Iraq have occurred simply because Moqtada al Sadr called for a ceasefire or because the United States bought off Sunni insurgents. Such assertions ignore the key variable in the equation; the Coalition's change in strategy and our employment of the surge forces. In this definitive volume, Kimberly Kagan sets the record straight, describing the complete operational history of the surge from its inception to the end of 2007. Kagan's detailed analysis looks at the external players - from al Qaeda in Iraq, and the Iranian-backed Special Groups, to the Jaysh al Mahdi - and covers the day-to-day strategies, locations, tactics, organization, and responses to American actions.

Master of middle-grade adventure Roland Smith returns with a second installment in this fast-paced action series. Chase and his friends Nicole and Rashawn have just survived Hurricane Emily, the storm of the century, but their troubles are just beginning. Though they've made it to the safety of Nicole's family's farm-the winter home of the Rossi Brothers Circus-the floodwaters are rising and they need to reach higher ground. The circus's lions have escaped their cages, and a mean and unpredictable leopard is also on the loose. And then, of course, there's the problem of the wildlife preserve next door! Have Chase and his friends lived through a terrifying night only to face a new danger?

The untold story of the global poor: “Powerful, lucid, and revelatory, The Great Surge…offers indispensable prescriptions about sustaining global economic progress into the future” (George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management). We live today at a time of great progress for the global poor. Never before have so many people, in so many developing countries, made so much progress, in so short a time in reducing poverty, increasing incomes, improving health, reducing conflict and war, and spreading democracy. Most people believe the opposite: that with a few exceptions like China and India, the majority of developing countries are hopelessly mired in deep poverty, led by inept dictators, and have little hope for change. But a major transformation is underway—and has been for two decades now. Since the early 1990s more than 700 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty, six million fewer children die every year from disease, tens of millions more girls are in school, millions more people have access to clean water, and democracy—often fragile and imperfect—has become the norm in developing countries around the world. “A terrific book” (Nick Kristof, The New York Times), The Great Surge chronicles this unprecedented economic, social, and political transformation. It shows how the end of the Cold War, the development of new technologies, globalization, and courageous local leadership have combined to improve the fate of hundreds of millions of people in poor countries around the world. Most importantly, The Great Surge reveals how we can accelerate the progress.

**Winner of the 2020 Sunday Times/University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year Award** Jay Bernard's extraordinary debut is a fearless exploration of the New Cross Fire of 1981, a house fire at a birthday party in which thirteen young black people were killed. Dubbed the 'New Cross Massacre', the fire was initially believed to be a racist attack, and the indifference with which the tragedy was met by the state triggered a new era of race relations in Britain. Tracing a line from New Cross to the 'towers of blood' of the Grenfell fire, this urgent collection speaks with, in and of the voices of the past, brought back by the incantation of dancehall rhythms and the music of Jamaican patois, to form a living presence in the absence of justice. A ground-breaking work of excavation, memory and activism - both political and personal, witness and documentary - Surge shines a much-needed light on an unacknowledged chapter in British history, one that powerfully resonates in our present moment. 'The verse has anger and political purpose, but a rare lyrical precision, too. The combination is powerful' Sebastian Faulks, Spectator, Books of the Year 2020 *Winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry* *Shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award; T.S. Eliot Prize; Forward Prize for Best First Collection; Dylan Thomas Prize; RSL Ondaatje Prize; John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize* *Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2020*

The biggest ingredient to success is timing, yet everyone ignores it. Surge is a step by step guide to position your business directly in front of surging customer demand. You can time the market, after all.

A wounded U.S. Army veteran is redeployed to lead underprepared National Guardsmen in the 2007 Iraq War troop surge.