Understanding Somalia and Somaliland: Culture, History, Society (Columbia/Hurst)
This type of essential description and assessment of a culture and a history can come only from an author so permeated by his subject that writing about it flows in the smooth fashion of a natural phenomenon. If there is one clear lesson that emerges from Ioan Lewis's precise and sweeping assessment it is that Somalia is a walking and moving exception to many rules about the nation-state. Required reading for anyone dealing with Somalia, from diplomats and journalists to NGOs and members of the United Nations.(Gérard Prunier, author ofThe Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide)A sober guide to... why Somalia is much more complicated than most foreigners and diplomats pretend, is Ioan Lewis of the London School of Economics—Britain's, if not the world's, foremost expert on that country. HisUnderstanding Somalia and Somalilandis an excellent short introduction to the tribal, geographic, and historical complexities of a place he has studied, lived in, and visited for several decades.(Carne RossNew Statesman)