Inside ISIS: The Brutal Rise of a Terrorist Army Paperback – November 10, 2015

Benjamin Hall is an educated and intelligent man. He is not a scholar and this is not a scholarly book. It is a first hand account of the horrible doings of the terror group ISIS. Mr. Hall recounts the atrocities he has seen, his escapes under fire and even a brief imprisonment in a Turkish jail. He also supplies a good deal of background about ISIS and the ever fluid situation in the Middle East. This is not an easy read but if you want to know what is going on with ISIS and its world, this is the book for you.

This book provides an in-depth look at the origins and the motivations of the ISIS and stories from the ground from the author's time in the region. A fascinating read and one that's necessary to effectively eliminate or at least incapacitate ISIS. The book also provides a fascinating look at how America's haphazard approach to handling matters in the region has led to disaster after disaster.A few things that could be improved in an updated edition to a book which relate to editing:1) Organization - the book does a great job in that it covers a lot of topics and does so well but jumps back and forth between them constantly. It would have been better to have the topics organized into discrete sections.2) Glossary of terms/people/organizations - It would have been nice to have one at the end of the book as there are a lot of individuals, organizations, and concepts covered in the book.

Fact-filled and data driven story by a man who was on the ground and saw much of what we read. It helped a lot, from my perspective, that the author interviewed warriors who have fought and left the cause and fighters who remain in the struggle. The complexities of the issues is well told (i.e., those who fight to establish a caliphate, those who fight to keep their tribe(s) safe and those who fight to protect their state). Reinforces the possibility that this will be a long battle. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants some insights into how ISIS came to dominate the world's terror stage (they are NOT a J.V.team!).

A very good book for one to learn about the evil of ISIS driven by Islam ideology. This is not a sugar coated media report or an Obama apology to Muslims. It provides a very good picture of ISIS and its operation in Syria and Iraq. It is written by someone who obviously was there to see for himself and report on the murdering evil organization. It also serves as a warning to all and everywhere how these evil Islamic organization can fester and grown under the right conditions for them to do so. It also lets us know that many of the fighters can return to western nations to continue their evil jihad. They have no regard for human life and have been taught to kill and hate in the name of Allah.

The book overall is not bad as I know one review stated, there are typos and some errors but nothing so drastic to distract from reading or to take away from what he is conveying information. The fact these two reporters went to the battlefield and to units inserted there instead of being a pencil pushing chair scholar helps immensely for the content of this book. However I disagree on his opinions of America for the most part except for the fact that we(America) indirectly developed ISIS. He has his opinion and I have mine though so I'm not going to badger him due to that. I recommend reading it.

Interesting but needs an editor!This is an interesting read and a page turner. I want to assign it to my university students. However, the errors are among the worst I have ever seen in a bestseller. I even chuckled when the author heaps praise on his editor. In addition, it is very disjointed. Though I like reading the first-hand accounts, ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror and Black Flag are more void of grammatical and spelling errors and more organized. . I am glad I read this book.

There are a lot of books about ISIS out there right now, and it's hard to digest all of the information currently circulating in the news. This author has experience getting to the point as a columnist, so this book gets right to the meat and potatoes of the issue. It's so very sad to hear about the people who have willingly join this sect of savages thinking that it is a path to a meaningful life. It's not long before they realize that it's just a group of misguided murderers with loyalty to no-one but themselves. The stories of victims who escaped or survived, and their family members are harrowing. Hall did a great job of seeing this issue and the effects of this group from multiple perspectives.

Ordered and paid for this book that I thought was new. Received a used book with a $3.29 price tag from the Goodwill.

Of the author ever reads my review he has some very very basic differences wrong. For example on page 63 he states most other sunni groups believe a Caliph must come from Prophet Mohameds family. This is so very basic. Its what Shia believe not Sunni and its the basis of the very first split in islam. The author may have been in iraq but he has zero understanding of the differences of Shia and my Sunni religion. We as Sunnis follow what our Prophet had said that anyone can be Caliph and to avoid family lines. The Shia believe against Prophet Mohamed in only his family can succeed him. This is so basic as to make me question everything else. There are other and many mistakes. I feel he has accompanied Shia fighters as he refers to their fight as justified when in fact they slaughtered many innocent people. Isis did too yes. He refets to the Shia as militias but the Sunni as terrorists. So this book is VERY biased and its a shame theres so much lack of understanding of the situation there. That along with his quotes of the Qur'an and what this book fails to do when it quotes the Qur'an is to provide an explanation. You have to understand it was written 1400 years ago. The historic battles are EXACTLY the same as the bible and the torah and not relevant to behaviour today. He quotes ISIS statements as coming from the Qur'an. THEY DO NOT. Temporary marriages are certainly NOT allowed in the Qur'an and again a shia distortion that sunni islam abhors. Author gets this wrong too.I urge anyone to google the true meanings in CONTEXT from an islamic website. You cannot just cherry pick a verse and think u understand it. If u do that then u do exactly what isis do. They twist and misunderstand it too. Thats why they are terrorists. ISIS are TERRORISTS and the Qur'an is a book of peace not the portrayal from cherry picked verses. The bible also tells to go kill non believers because they were historic battles at the time between good and evil. Society has moved on since those times so should never be read as relevant today.

Great book gives you an insight into how it all started and how they are gathering strength.

Fascinating look into an evil cult. Easy to read, the author knows his subject and obvious he is very familiar with the Middle East. Up to date information.

Very concise and clear explanation.

Very interesting book ,that gives you a clear idea of what is happening in middle east , from an objetive analysis