All In

January 30, 2012
This is an authoritative and engrossing look at General David Petraeusânow director of the CIAâ, his impact on the Army (particularly in terms of counterinsurgency tactics), and his command of the NATO and U.S. forces during the surge in Afghanistan, including accounts from his battalion commanders and others. Broadwell gives what Petraeus himself might term a "granular understanding" of the general, detailing his life, motivations, mentors, education, postings, and command style in an engaging manner, only slightly marred by the copious use of acronyms (though the book does feature a three-page guide to the latter). Broadwell, a West Point graduate, veteran, and counterterrorism policy expert, first met Petraeus in 2006 as a graduate student and later conducted a case study in Petraeus' leadership which concurrently became a thesis for her University of London Ph.D. in public policy and this book. She had unique access to Petraeus, his staff and his colleagues, and it shows in the detailsâfrom his father's exhortations to focus on "Results, boy!," to the informal, handwritten note of appreciation Petraeus received from former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The book veers from biography to military history to counterinsurgency manual, and though Broadwell fails to sufficiently explore criticisms of Petraeus, the back-and-forth in topic and theme ultimately render a fuller context within which readers might understand the general and his remarkable impact.

January 1, 2012
A semi-authorized biography of Army Gen. David Petraeus, in the context of his Iraq and Afghanistan war commands after 9/11. While researching her doctorate at the University of London, Broadwell, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, decided to focus on Petraeus. She had met him in 2006, while a graduate student at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and she eventually came to know him better and won his cooperation to produce a book. Washington Post editor Loeb, who was embedded with a military unit under Petraeus' command in Iraq in 2003, provides a solid journalistic aspect to the book, which is not a traditional biography—the narrative is not chronological and does not cover every aspect of the subject's rise from student to the top of the military establishment. The author scatters biographical elements throughout the story, offering a somewhat in-depth understanding of how generals are made in the contemporary American military, and what drove this one man in particular to attain the top rank and become perhaps the most recognizable war commander since Dwight D. Eisenhower. Although Broadwell rarely demonstrates overt political stances in the book, she appears to more or less approve of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan as a counterterrorist strategy. Though Petraeus comes across as a consistently "all-in" warrior, Broadwell occasionally includes material that reveals his flaws. To the author's credit, she pays close attention to Petraeus' home life; after all, no war commander leaves for battle without consequences for a spouse, children, parents and many others. It is of special interest that Petraeus married Holly Knowlton, whose father William A. Knowlton served as superintendent of West Point when Petraeus was a cadet there. The narrative is difficult to track because of shifting time elements and sporadic sections of battleground details, but Broadwell provides a first-rate education about the modern American military for outsiders.

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August 1, 2011

Relying on hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with Petraeus and his top officers and soldiers, Broadwell tells the story of one of the key military leaders of our time. She's got the background, having graduated with honors from the U.S. Military Academy; coauthor Loeb, the Washington Post's Metro editor, was embedded with the 101st Airborne Division under Petraeus's command in 2003. Essential for readers following current events.

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