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Title: The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'Ud by Robert Lacey ISBN: 0-7861-0643-3 Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks Pub. Date: 01 August, 1997 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 16 List Price(USD): $99.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 (10 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Serious but dated, lacking a contrarian perspective
Comment: Robert Lacey's book is a well-researched book that gives valuable insights into the history of Saudi Arabia and the mindset of its ruling family. Unfortunately, it lacks critical distance and paints an overly flattering portrait of the House of Saud, and should be balanced by reading Said K. Aburish's "The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud".
My father worked with the USSR in the 70s and Saudi Arabia in the 80s, and he told me Saudi Arabia was the most stifling place he ever was in, even worse than communist Russia (this is not anti-muslim bigotry, by the way, I am one myself).
A lot has changed since this book was written, due to demographic pressure and the collapse of the oil-driven welfare state after Gulf War I, so this book should be used mostly as a reference for the period before 1980.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very informative explanation of a complex country.
Comment: I stumbled upon this book shortly after my return home from the Persian Gulf War and it answered all of the questions that naturally arose from living for an extended period in such a unique country. It is a must read for anyone who is going to Saudi Arabia or who will be dealing with subjects of the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia is indeed a kingdom in a sense that is long gone from our historical perspective. As one of the Royal Saudi Air Force officers told me recently, the country is the "private property" of the Saudi family. Reading this book will give you an appreciation of the skill and leadership of Abdul Aziz ibn Sa'ud that allowed him to consolidate power in this vast desert land. If you are among those who have seen the "Emerald City" while at LogBases Alpha, Bravo, or Echo (226th ASG, Hooah) you must buy this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: A good backround to this fascinating and terrifying land
Comment: If all your knowledge of Saudi Arabia comes from a couple of screenings of "Laurence of Arabia" and a nervous eyeful of screeming extremists blaring out of the front pages, this book is a must-read. From a Western point of view, the whole concept of Saudi is impossible madness, but Mr. Lacy very deftly untangles its subtlties in a vivid, sympathetic style that mercifully excludes both political correctness and zenophobia.
Arabia's rise from Ottoman backwater to fabulous wealth is an odyssey too weird for fiction. Mr. Lacy concentrates on the country as pawn of the Europeans in the 1800's and moves into the tummultous 20th century and the rise of the house of Sa'ud, their capitalization on world events, their fatal attraction to wahabbiism, and their government based on tribal loyalties and a system of patronage so labyrinthine it will make your head spin.
It's a heck of a read, and Mr. Lacy does it by immersing you in their world. By the time scientists from Standard Oil California appear poking around the eastern peninsula "searching for signs of the sea", it is they who seem alien. The book only needs an update to bring it up to speed with Saudi's frightening present.
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Title: The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud by Said K. Aburish ISBN: 0312161190 Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan Pub. Date: 01 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent by Mamoun Fandy ISBN: 0312238827 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: 03 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: A History of Saudi Arabia by Madawi al-Rasheed ISBN: 0521644127 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 11 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom, Updated Edition by Sandra MacKey ISBN: 0393324176 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: ARABISTS : THE ROMANCE OF AN AMERICAN ELITE by Robert D. Kaplan ISBN: 0028740238 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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