List Books » Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia
Authors: Robert Lacey, Stephen Hoye
ISBN-13: 9781400183371, ISBN-10: 1400183375
Format: MP3 Book
Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc.
Date Published: October 2009
Edition: Unabridged
Robert Lacey is the author of twenty books, including Majesty, The Year 1000, and the New York Times bestseller The Kingdom. For the last three years he has been living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
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 oil-market 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...
Lacey (The Kingdom) delves into the paradoxes in Saudi society—where women are forbidden to drive but are more likely to attend universities than men—and why this nation yielded most of the terrorist team on September 11, Osama bin Laden and one of the largest group of foreign fighters sent to Guantánamo from Afghanistan. Lacey's conversational tone and anecdotal approach to storytelling and analysis gives us a vivid portrait of personal and political life in Saudi Arabia's public and personal spheres, the traditions that govern everyday life, the country's journey from relative liberalism on the tide of extreme oil wealth in the 1980s to a resurgence of traditionalism. Lacey shows us a land where the governing dynasty gives rehabilitated Guantánamo returnees an $18,000 stipend toward their marriage dowry, and 15 young girls died in a schoolhouse fire in 2002 because they were not properly veiled, and religious police forbade them to escape and prevented firefighters from entering the burning building. Lacey's eye for sweeping trends and the telling detail combined with the depth, breadth and evenhandedness of his research makes for an indispensable guide. (Oct.)
Map: Saudi Arabia and Its Neighbors
Preface: Welcome to the Kingdom
Family Tree: Rulers of the Kingdom
Note on the Islamic Calendar
Pt. 1 Kingdom of God
1 Angry Face 3
2 The Brothers 14
3 Siege 24
4 No Sunni, No Shia 37
5 Vox Populi, Vox Dei 46
6 Salafi Soccer 54
7 Jihad in Afghanistan 62
8 Special Relationship 68
9 Dawn Visitors 78
10 Stars in the Heavens 86
11 Into Exile 97
12 The Dove and the East Wind 105
13 Vacationing Jihadi 114
Pt. 2 Kingdom at War
14 Desert Storm 127
15 Battle for Al-Khafji 141
16 Awakening 148
17 Stopping the Sins 157
18 In from the Cold 167
19 Change of Heart 174
20 Enter the Crown Prince 180
21 The Students 193
22 Infinite Reach 204
23 New Century 214
Pt. 3 Al-Qaeda Comes Home
24 Fifteen Flying Saudis 225
25 Fire 237
26 Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula 244
27 Prodigal Sons 253
28 King Abdullah 264
29 Girls of Saudi 274
30 Illegitimate Occupation 284
31 End of the Affair 292
32 Condition of the People 303
Epilogue 316
Time Line 333
Glossary of Names and Arabic Terms 335
Notes 343
Suggested Reading 377
Acknowledgments 381
General Index 389
House of Saud Index 401
Photographic Sources 403