No surprise: Petraeus book pub date moved up by Simon & Schuster

With the evolving story of David Petraeus’ extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell -- and the strange way it has come to light -- capturing Americans’ attention, it’s no surprise that Simon & Schuster has moved up the publication of its book about Petraeus, “The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War.”

“The Insurgents” was set to be published Jan. 15. It will instead hit shelves Jan. 2, and include a swiftly written afterword about Petraeus’ resignation as CIA chief.

Written by Fred Kaplan, “The Insurgents” tells “the inside story of the small group of soldier-scholars who changed the way the Pentagon does business and the American military fights wars, against fierce resistance from within their own ranks,” according to Simon & Schuster.

The publisher’s description continues, “Based on previously unavailable documents and interviews with more than 100 key characters, including 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 — including 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’) and maneuvered the idea through the highest echelons of power.”

Publishers Weekly writes that the new postscript will “spice up” the military history.

Kaplan is a Slate columnist, a fellow at the New America Foundation and a former Boston Globe reporter. His previous books include 2008’s “Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power” and “1959: The Year Everything Changed” (2009).

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