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Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia |  | Author: Robert Lacey
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 313469
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.9
Dewey Decimal Number: 953.8053
ASIN: B003B3NVWC
Publication Date: October 15, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
What happened in the Middle East's oil-rich powerhouse- while we weren't looking
Saudi Arabia is a country defined by paradox. It is a modern state driven by contemporary technology and possessed of vast oil deposits, yet its powerful religious establishment would have its customs and practices rolled back a thousand years to match those of the prophet Muhammad.
With Inside the Kingdom, journalist and bestselling author Robert Lacey has given us one of the most penetrating and insightful looks at Saudi Arabia ever produced. While living for years among the nation's princes and paupers, its clerics and progressives, Lacey endeavored to find out how the consequences of the 1970s oil boom produced a society at war with itself. Filled with stories that trace a path through the Persian Gulf War and the events of 9/11 to the oilmarket convulsions of today, Inside the Kingdom gives us a modern history of the Saudis in their own words, revealing a people attempting to reconcile life under religious law with the demands of a rapidly changing world. Their struggle will have powerful reverberations around the globe, and this rich work provides a penetrating look at a country no one can afford to ignore.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 The long-awaited sequel... November 3, 2009
John P. Jones III (Albuquerque, NM, USA)
25 out of 26 found this review helpful
... to The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'Ud which ends at the beginning of the `80's. At the beginning of his previous work, Lacey relates how a Georgetown educated member of the House of Saud told him that he had lived in the Kingdom for 30 years, and if he tried to explain the country, and how it worked, the best he could do is get a B+ on the paper, and therefore, Lacey, as an outsider, could only hope to earn a C. I disagreed, and in my review, said that Lacey deserved at least a B+, if not an A-. For this work, which covers the last 30 years, he deserves a solid A.
Lacey starts with "Angry Face," Juhayman, and his followers, including the expected "Mahdi," who seized the mosque in Mecca (Makkah) in 1979. (This event is also covered well by Trofimov, in The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam's Holiest Shrine). The author selected a wonderfully appropriate epigraph for this section, from Dostoevsky: "Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer. Nothing is more difficult than to understand him." Lacey did a commendable job in explaining the grievances of those being overwhelmed by the "future shock" that was roiling the Kingdom as a result of the influx of money and foreigners (and their ideas) following the sharp increase in oil prices after 1973. This event, plus the revolt of the Shia, in the eastern town of Qateef, in the same year, had the net effect of nudging Saudi Arabia to a much more conservative governmental social policy, yes, in effect, co-opting a portion of Juhayman's agenda... and the women disappeared from the TV, and the "Opera House" remained closed for many a year! Lacey also covers the Saudi-American alliance of the `80's, ironical in retrospect, openly supported "jihad," certainly when it was fighting the "godless" Soviet Union in Afghanistan. And now both countries suffer from the "blowback," in CIA parlance. Part Two deals with the second decade of the 30 year period, the `90's. The author again commences with an all too appropriate epigraph, this time from Edward Gibbon: "So intimate is the connection between the throne and the alter that the banner of church has very seldom been seen on the side of the people." The seminal event in this decade was Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, and his expulsion, lead by an American coalition. The net effect on the Kingdom, who saw American female soldiers driving, which was emulated by their Saudi counterparts, was to again nudge the Kingdom into a more conservative mode. Still, despite the various "fetishes" developed by the religious police, say, against red roses on Valentine's day, the country continues to be overwhelmed by Western (and world) influences, and sadly, the upholders of tradition saw nothing wrong in the influx of fast food restaurants, which led to an "epidemic" of diabetes. Paralleling events in the Kingdom, Lacey devotes space to events in not so far off Afghanistan, where the "students," (the Taliban) were seizing power, and welcomed Bin Laden from the Sudan. The last third of the book starts with "15 flying Saudis," the events of 9/11, and the aftermath, and the Kingdom's own "9/11", which occurred on May 12, 2003, when three upscale compounds were attacked by suicide bombers in Riyadh. Clearly Lacey empathizes with the modernizing goals of now King Abdullah, who had been de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia since King Fahd's stroke in '95, but only obtained the full title after his death in 2005. He closes his epilogue poignantly, with the King praying longer one evening after seeing the progress at KAUST, the university that bears his name, slower than he had hoped.
There is a small "cottage industry" which publishes books, and promotes articles that depict the Kingdom as "mysterious," that wants to "rip the veil" off Saudi society, that "exposes" the Kingdom, that produces sheer fantasies of life in the Kingdom. Lacey might have foregone a few book sales by not following this gamut, but for those who want to understand the country (and even ponder how we in the West perceive the country), this book is an essential read. The author has an extraordinary range of contacts in the Kingdom, and has woven the stories of real Saudis into his story, such as the "jihadis," Mansour Al-Nogaidan and Khaled Al-Hubayshi. Overall, through the sheer number of Saudis who were willing to speak "on the record," you had a sense that they trusted Lacey to tell the story in a balanced way, which I think he has. Tis a shame that it will be one more book on the Kingdom that will be banned by their Ministry of Information.
I loved the way Lacey utilized Saudi parables, as Saudis themselves do, to make a point, with my favorite being "The Donkey from Yemen." Lacey should also be commended for correctly translated the meaning of "Tash ma Tash," the Saudi sit-com, unlike the authors of a couple other books on the Kingdom.
Quibbles? Well, I have a few, and they only underscore the difficulty for a foreigner to get it "all right," but often they can, even better than a Saudi, due to the perspective, and "lack of baggage," including tribal ones. Per Lippman, in Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership with Saudi Arabia it is unlikely American women were in Al Kharj before 1950, not 1944, as Lacey indicates (p 9). There would have been no "hilal" moon (or any other), on Muharram 01, 1400 (p 22). I'd love to know how the M113 armored personnel carrier was a "success" story of the Vietnam War (p 32). Al-Nakba (the disaster) is usually associated with the Palestinian expulsion of 1948, not the defeat of `67 (p 56). Steve Coll, in his The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century says that there are two versions of how Osama's father, Mohammed, lost his eye, but both occurred in Ethiopia and neither involved soccer; Lacey says that it happened in the Sudan, as a result of a soccer game (p 58). Concerning the formation of "Al Qaeda", the BBC documentary "The Power of Nightmares, directed by Adam Curtis, gives a much more plausible explanation its origins - it was invented by Americans, (!!) for the trials of the 1993 bombers of the WTC, legally, so that RICO laws could be utilized, which involve "conspiracy" and an organization. Later, Bin Laden co-opted the term! It is extremely unlikely that Bin Laden had (has) a "database" of names of all the muhahideen and their contact details, save in his brain (p 148). "Only" three compounds in Riyadh were attacked on May 12, 2003 - the Oasis compound was not (p 244). And Lacey entitles a chapter on the women of Saudi Arabia the "girls" of Saudi - and not a single "girl" was in the chapter (p 274).
Overall, though, a thoroughly researched, and balanced book, written to illuminate Western and in particular, American readers on Saudi Arabia, (Lacey, a British writer even explains that Sandhurst is the "West Point of England.") and should be read in conjunction with Lacey's earlier work, The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'Ud Though I'm sure Lacey would demur that "it is beyond the scope of this course," should not all Americans ponder the progress made after each countries "9/11" concerning the issues he only discusses about the Kingdom, be it educational policies, human rights, detention facilities, employment of youth and counteracting those who advocate endless conflict with "the other." An essential 5-star read.
Exposing the Man Behind the Curtain October 21, 2009
Eric F. Facer (Centreville, VA)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
Saudi Arabia is the proverbial "man behind the curtain," the guy who exerts power, wields influence, and manipulates events but seeks to remain largely anonymous. Trouble is, Robert Lacey keeps pulling back the curtain to reveal the secrets and mysteries of this most peculiar kingdom.
Thirty years ago Mr. Lacey published a history of Saudi Arabia called "The Kingdom," a book, by the way, that the House of Saud elected to ban. Mr. Lacey's new tome basically picks up where the last one left off.
Mr. Lacey's prose is enjoyable and his book is well structured, describing and explaining events in a logical and chronological sequence with digressions and thematic developments where appropriate. And after reading his book, I have gained a renewed appreciation for the Law of Unintended Consequences. We learn that the Arab oil embargo, which was precipitated by U.S. support for Israel during the 1973 war, resulted in unprecedented prosperity in Saudi Arabia which, in turn, caused a backlash among Islamic conservatives, which fostered the growth of organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood where Osama Bin Laden found a home, who then went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, and so on and so on. Mr. Lacey also does a fine job of chronicling the evolution of the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia and the Royal Family's genuine fear of the Shia extremists that control the government of neighboring Iran. And he effectively buttresses his arguments with insightful anecdotes and telling vignettes.
The events in this book have been chronicled elsewhere--it doesn't contain startling revelations or previously undisclosed diplomatic secrets. But it does help you understand the forces that have created the current mess in the Middle East, many of which were unleashed unwittingly by the participants. And I personally will take it as a sign of hope for the region (albeit a small sign) if the Kingdom, this time around, does not choose to ban Mr. Lacey's book.
Exposing what would prefer to remain hidden December 21, 2009
R. C Sheehy (Foxboro,MA USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Saudi Arabia is a kingdom that lives in two unique worlds. As a global center of both the Islamic faith and oil it has to deal with the ancient and the modern and is torn by the two. Robert Lacey does a wonderful job of offering a narrative that describes how the worlds events during the past 60 years have shaped, and been shaped. Lacey gives us the standard history tour which one might expect, but he also goes behind the scenes and offers just the right amount of opinion with history.
The book is very good at explaining how Saudi Arabia was a fairly modern kingdom until a terrorist attack made it one that espoused the very ideals the terrorists espoused. This lead almost directly to the creation of the 9/11 factor and Osama Bin Laden. But only after the terrorists came home did Saudi Arabia start to act in anything approaching a reformist mindset. Lacey does a great job of showing how any reform was slow and met with tremendous opposition and even now minor steps require major battles. All in all a very good read!
recommended July 30, 2010
Caraculiambro (La Mancha and environs)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Possibly the most informative book on Saudi Arabia out there right now that is not out of date. There are other good books, but Lacey's book subsumes many of their best features and, published late in 2009, is as up-to-date as anything on the market. If nothing else, this superannuates Sandra Mackey's "The Saudis," Lacey's own "The Kingdom" (1982), and a few others. Certainly if you're going to only read one book about Saudi Arabia, it should be this one. Lacey has years of experience as a writer and it definitely shows when you're reading this: the thing is well-balanced and never boring.
Kind of interesting, too, that he was even permitted to write it. As he informs you early in the book, his first book about Saudi Arabia ended up being banned in the Kingdom -- mainly because of what the royal family must have perceived as "dirt" about them: we Westerners would probably disagree that it was "dirt," but there you go. Lacey wonders whether this outing will also be banned in the Kingdom. (I can tell you this: yup.)
What I mean, though, is: I thought that once you wrote a book that got banned, you were forever after persona non grata in the Kingdom. Apparently not! Lacey managed not only to get back in the Kingdom, but to come back as an effin' journalist! Holy cow! He must have some friends in high places.
Does this mean Lacey has been co-opted and cannot be trusted? I was initially leaning towards this opinion, but after concluding this volume have to be more reasonable. Obviously if Lacey were to haul off and start detailing a laundry list of charges against the Saudis or their government, he'd certainly never get back in. On the other hand, if he were to whitewash everything, nobody would read his books. Ergo there is much that is left understated in the book. Understated, but not unsaid. At no point, for example, does Lacey try to make it seem like a tiny minority of extremists have hijacked a peaceful religion, etc. At no point does Lacey (unlike that screwball Quisling, Mark Weston, in his Prophets and Princes: Saudi Arabia from Muhammad to the Present) exempt the royal family from criticism or the culture that is Saudi Arabia from human rights considerations. I'm just saying that one needs to read this book with careful attention to glean what the author's positions must amount to.
So: a fine job, at least the best job that could have been done under the circumstances. Lacey's interviews range from liberals, to (former) jihadis, to royals, to disgruntled women's rights activists. It's quite the snapshot of modern Saudi Arabia: I don't know that you could get a more complete picture from any other single source. And Lacey does not shy away from discussions of news items that his Saudi hosts would probably have preferred he elided: the "girl of Qatif," the Meccan girls' school fire, the dual shocks of 1979, etc.
Not that by any of this praise I mean to say this is the best book I've read about Saudi Arabia. That would still have to be Yaroslave Trofimov's The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam's Holiest Shrine, the basic outline of which Lacey borrows here while discussing that event.
Good analysis, to be read as a novel, with several anecdotes June 6, 2010
Alessandro ZANASI (Italy)
I enjoyed this book. Very easy to be read, also by non English mother tongue readers. I was looking a book which could give an insight on current Saudi life and politics and it gave it.
For the issues that I have already known, I found them correctly described.
An important book for people who want to know more about last years Saudi Arabia.
Congratulations to Mr.Lacey.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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