Product Description

Saudi Arabia is a wealthy and powerful country which exerts influence in the West and across the Islamic world. Yet it remains a closed society. The author traces its history from the age of emirates in the nineteenth century to the present day. Fusing chronology with analysis, personal experience with oral histories, she illuminates the social and cultural life of the Saudis. This rich and rewarding book will be invaluable to students as well as others trying to understand the enigma of Saudi Arabia.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #151109 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 274 pages

Review
"An accessible narrative that even those readers already familiar with the outlines of Saudi history can read with profit." Middle East Policy

"The book...is written in a style that quite simply makes for a 'good read.' If I were recommending one book on the history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia...this would be it." Middle East Journal

"Al-Rasheed's book is concise, timely, and well suited for a broad readership...Skillfully written and insightful." History: Reviews of New Books

"Madawi Al-Rasheed's critical reinterpretation of Saudi Arabian history is not only timely, it is provocative. It is informed by both excellent scholarship and a familiarity with the subject that comes from knowing it from the inside. Both sympathizers with and critics of the country will find their stereotypes of the Saudi reality challenged." F. Gregory Gause, III, University of Vermont

"This is one of the most refreshing, well-researched and clearly-written books to appear on Saudia Arabia in recent times." Hala Fattah, Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies

"Al-Rasheed has written a strong general history of Saudi Arabia that at the same time offers analysis of selected narrower issues and phenomena." - Peter C. Valenti, New York University

About the Author
Madawi Al-Rasheed is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at King's College, University of London. Her publications include Politics in an Arabian Oasis (1991) and Iraqi Assyrian Christians in London (1998).

Customer Reviews

Fresh Perspective on Nation/State building
The Saud family is the monarchy, which is the state, of Saudi Arabia. This book shows how that state of affairs came to be.

I found the material on the 1930s especially illuminating, because it provides us with a picture of the Saud family, and to a degree a picture of Arabia, before the rest of the world came to appreciate the strategic significance of petroleum, and before the Second World War made all national boundaries something up for negotiation and renegotiation.

We're also treated to an illuminating dicussion of when marriages (and by extension polygamy) is, and when it isn't, a valuable tool for the forging of political alliances. This is an analytical take on a subject usually rushed through with cliches.