Book description
Saudi Arabia is a country defined by paradox: it sits atop some of
the richest oil deposits in the world, and yet the country's roiling
disaffection produced sixteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers. It is a
modern state, driven by contemporary technology, and yet its powerful
religious establishment would have its customs and practices rolled
back to match those of the Prophet Muhammed over a thousand years ago.
In a world where events in the Middle East continue to have
geopolitical consequences far beyond the region's boundaries, an
understanding of this complex nation is essential.
With Inside the Kingdom, British journalist and bestselling
author Robert Lacey has given us one of the most penetrating and
insightful looks at Saudi Arabia ever produced. More than twenty years
after he first moved to the country to write about the Saudis at the
end of the oil boom, Lacey has returned to find out how the
consequences of the boom produced a society at war with itself.
Filled with stories told by a broad range of Saudis, from high
princes and ambassadors to men and women on the street, Inside the
Kingdom is in many ways the story of the Saudis in their own words.
Robert Lacey is a British journalist and the author of the
bestselling books
Majesty
and
Ford: The Men and the Machine
, among others. In 1979, he moved with his family to Saudi Arabia for
eighteen months to research his book,
The Kingdom
, an eye-opening and penetrating study of that country's complex and
often paradoxical culture. For the past three years he has split his
time between Saudi Arabia and London, gathering material for this book.
