The Most Dangerous Man in the World

Andrew Fowler, Andrew John Fowler

Melbourne University Publishing, 2012 - Editors - 306 pages

The battle lines are drawn: freedom of speech against the control of the State. The Internet is the battle ground. In this war there will be only one winner.

In The Most Dangerous Man in the World, award-winning journalist Andrew Fowler talks to Julian Assange, his inner circle, and those disaffected by him. Fowler deftly reveals the story of how a man with a turbulent childhood and brilliance for computers created a phenomenon that has disrupted the worlds of both journalism and international politics. From Assange's early skirmishes with the cult of Scientology in Australia to the release of 570,000 intercepts of pager messages sent on the day of the September 11th attacks and the visual bombshell of the Collateral Murder video--showing American soldiers firing on civilians and Reuters reporters--Fowler takes us from the founding of WikiLeaks right up to Cablegate, and the threat of further leaks.

New information based on interviews conducted with Assange reveal the possibility that he has Asperger's syndrome, why U.S. soldier Bradley Manning turned to an ex-hacker to spill military secrets, and how Assange helped police remove a "how to make a bomb" book from the Internet. The mother of one of his children also talks for the first time about life with Julian when he was setting up WikiLeaks. According to the "Pentagon Papers" whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Julian Assange is "the most dangerous man in the world." But just who is Julian Assange, and why is his quest for transparency and freedom of the press so dangerous in the eyes of his detractors? In a fascinating account that reads like a Tom Clancy thriller, Fowler reveals all--what it means, and why it matters.

Like The Looming Tower on 9/11 or The Lords of Finance on the collapse of the US economy, The Most Dangerous Man in the World is the definitive journalistic account of a massive global news event that has changed the face of journalism and the way governments do business.

What people are saying

User Review -

I was passed a copy of this book by a friend thinking I knew pretty much everything there was to know about Julian Assange - I don't think any single individual has had more media coverage than Assange over the past couple of years.
I was very wrong - Fowler's book is aptly named because it does give one the 'inside story' on Wikileaks and Julian Assange. It debunks a number of myths that the mainstream media have propagated in their attacks on Assange.
I piled through the entire book in less than 48 hours - it's like a download of your favourite HBO series - impossible to stop until you finish! 

About the author

Andrew Fowleris an award-winning investigative journalist and a reporter for the ABC s Foreign Correspondentand Four Cornersprograms. He has been chief of staff and acting foreign editor of The Australiannewspaper and a reporter with SBS Datelineand Channel 7, as well as heading up the ABC's Investigative Unit. He first interviewed Julian Assange for Foreign Correspondentin May 2010, for which the program won the New York Festival Gold Medal. He has since interviewed Assange forForeign Correspondentin October 2011, and Four Cornersin July 2012.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Most Dangerous Man in the World
• Authors: Andrew Fowler, Andrew John Fowler
• Edition: revised
• Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing, 2012
• ISBN: 0522861903, 9780522861907
• Length: 306 pages