Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21243 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"A highly informed, temperate, and understanding account of a country that. . . is an enigma."--"The New York Times""Contribute[s] substantially to the debate"--"Los Angeles Times"
"[A] thoughtful, incisive portrait of a fractured nation....a remarkable volume"--"Newsweek International""[Bradley] uses a graceful journalist's pen to write with scholarly authority...shows a sensitivity rare for a Westerner, reaching directly to the society's core."--"The Nation"

Synopsis
This is an intimate insight from the heart of the secret kingdom. This is a thoughtful, incisive portrait of a fractured nation whose many faces include those of Islamic fundamentalist and American ally. Saudi Arabia: land of oil, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism - and a crucial American ally. At a time in which the consequences of America's previous actions in the Middle Eastern theatre are coming back to haunt not only the US but the whole world, John R. Bradley provides unparalleled insight from the heart of the secretive Islamic kingdom's urban centres to its most mountainous terrain, revealing regional, religious and tribal rivalries. A new chapter sheds light on: the new king and conflicts to come; why Saudi Arabia is the source of many insurgents and suicide bombers in Iraq; the troubling effects of high oil prices on Saudi society; and a startling look at the present Saudi predicament and a troubling view of the future.

Customer Reviews

All you need to know about Saudi Arabia's complex society
There's very little around about Saudi Arabia, a country that most people have a very faint idea about, and that even people who have lived there (such as myself) often fail to understand.

Bradley, out of his two-odd year experience as "the only credited western journalist" in the Magic Kingdom, offers a memorable, sober and impressive recap of the Saudi society. From the excesses of private life to the censorship that sends so many journalists behind bars, from drug abuse and homosexuality to the innate hospitability of the Saudi people, he criss-crosses the country in an ideal journey targeted to make you understand the complexity of this incredible and vastly unknown society, on whose developments will depend the stability of the Middle East, and hence of the whole world in the coming years.

Fascinating description of a fascinating place.
Bradley lived in Saudi Arabia, in an ordinary home, not in a foreigners' compound. As far as was possible he lived as an ordinary inhabitant and not an expat. This gave him an opportunity to see parts of the country that many others don't see.

There is probably no other country on earth that is so closed to foreign cultures, or that takes such care to control its citizen's moral and cultural lives. Nor is there any country that is so unique: quite different from all other Islamic societies, not just the rest of the world. Bradley gives an interesting, but necessarily personal, take on the country.