The World's Most Dangerous Place: Inside the Outlaw State of Somalia Hardcover – May 28, 2013

Excellent book. One of those rare times when an author can combine a nuanced topic with an approachable and engaging narrative. Fergusson also did a terrific job of explaining and following the Somali nation, which is no longer confined to a state and explains it all in the context of a proudly nomadic people.Interviews with pirates, Al-Shabbab child soldiers, UN officials, contractors, Londoners, and Somalis living in America's heartland all come to together in a book that really should be read by anyone who wants to have an opinion on Somalia and the Somali people.Often times material like this is unapproachable and wrapped in context that the author assumes you already know. Happily, Fergusson's work is entertaining and accessible to nearly anyone.

My son is in the thick of this mess right now with his Team and I just finished reading this book. I'd give it 5 stars, but it is very difficult to read. Written super well, but so much information and intricacy, very hard to follow all that happened. If you would like to get to know Somalia and the reason for the current status there, read this.

Gives a good review of the situation in Somalia, and the problems it has at its borders. Quite timely given the recent attacks at a shopping center complex in Kenya.With all those strengths, the weakness lies in the writing itself. It just doesn't flow. I would like to rate it 3.5 as I rarely give a book a 5 but there are plenty fo books I rated a 4 that are a lot better written than this one.

Not to many books are written on the current conflict in this nation. This book explains it all from the growth of the current conflict that put goverment forces with external help against a very well trainind and armed terroist organization. Many aspects are covered from the reason why people are going to this country to fight with the terroist and the need for goverment forces to stand up and carry the fight to the enemy. One interesting part of the book is the Uganda military forces are very well covered in this book and the operation they are under taking.

This is a good book on a tough subject, but suffers from the author not knowing the local language. His discussion on Suicide bombers misses one important point. Suicide bombers have a secondary fuze that can be triggered by a handler if the bomber decides to back-out at the last moment and not detonate his or her vest. Currently(2013)probably a majority of suicide bombers are having their vests triggered by their handler. Also, a discussion of the charcoal trade could have been greater and go into more detail as a source of money for al-Shabaab.Still, it is a fast read, the maps are excellent as are the photographs. Certainly quite good - not definitive though.

Very well written book. As usual, only some books, including this one, can give you a full inside story and a better and deeper knowledge of events. If you want a detailed, upper and at the same time "street level" point of view about Somalia and its complex political and ethnical problems, this is in this moment the best tool available.My compliments to the author. I liked everything: the language, the events, the details. Everything.

Somalia is a dangerous place. But the author trudges through the turmoil and the bullets, managing to talk with individuals on all sides(there are more than two), and discovering strange traces of the colonial occupation.Spaghetti Bolognese is an unlikely candidate for a national dish in Africa. And the Ugandan colonel seems a bit British. Exploring the various revolutionary movements, he discovers that al-Shabaab is in no way monolithic, its many splinter groups having clashing ideas about what Islam and civil government are about. Suicide bombers have to be imported, and guns seem to be the only item of agreement. Underlying it all is the clan system. Whichever clan gets into power is expected to dispense the goodies to clan members.This sometimes includes the food and medical aid sent to alleviate the truly awful situation of the average citizen. Seen against this, piracy would seem an almost normal way to make a living.The book lives, not only through the eyes of a brave reporter, but through the individuals caught up in the chaos. Venturing into the Somali communities in England and the USA, he discovers how clan has turned into gang, and speculates on why so many Islamic extremists come from the British-Somali communities.An internationally famous athelete is routinely arrested upon arrival in the USA, revealing that it is not only Islamists who have stock attitudes about people. Why not five stars? A bit of judicious editing might have made it less tiring at times. But if you want to understand what is going on in the Horn of Africa,it's a must read.

This book is well written and gives an in-depth account of Al-Shaba and the underlying causes of terrorism in this part of the world and the risk to the USA and Great Britain if certain steps are not taken by each country to get involved in a positive way with the Somali youth.

recommend it.

The author reveals the horrifying frontline account of brutalities in Somalia.

Well informed and brilliantly written. You will read it like a novel.James Fergusson knows about Somalia history and its key actors, including the al-shabab militias.

This is an interesting book that is worthwhile reading for anyone interested in Somalia, Somali piracy, Islamist terrorism in East Africa, the policy implications for Western governments of large Somali immigrant communities in Western countries and other issues arising from the situation in Somalia.The author is a freelance journalist who has travelled extensively in Somalia as well as having conducted extensive first hand research among the Somali Diaspora in East Africa, the UK and the US.While I don't agree with all of the author's conclusions, his research is very good and he has a lot of interesting points to make about Somalia and Somali expatriate communities in Western countries, particularly in the US and UK. This book is certainly worthwhile reading for anyone interested in Somalia and the policy implications of Somali issues for Western governments. This author writes well, his research is very good and he raises some very interesting issues.Note that this book was written before the Somali based Islamist attack on the mall in Nairobi in 2013, so that incident is not specifically covered.

I loved the author's past books on the Afghan War ("A Million Bullets" and "Taliban"), so I expected much from this one, and I wasn't disappointed... Not at all, really. Fergusson was amongst the first to reckon the tragic relevance of the Somali quagmire; while the world is still clinging to the Afghan War, things are worsening very fast in the Horn of Africa - and soon the insecurity will spread West and South of it... The book is exceptionally well researched (on the field) and well written, as I guessed it would be, with the additional value of leading the reader in an obscure and almost unheard of reality, like a shadow looming on our common future.