Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis by John R. Bradley

Product Details

Synopsis

Saudi Arabia: land of oil, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, and a crucial American ally. John R. Bradley uniquely exposes the turmoil that is shaking the House of Saud to its foundations, including the problems within the new leadership. From the heart of the secretive Islamic kingdom's urban centers to its most remote mountainous terrain, he provides intimate details and reveals regional, religious, and tribal rivalries.
Bradley highlights tensions generated by social change, the increasing restlessness of Saudi youth with limited cultural and political outlets, and the predicament of Saudi women seeking opportunities but facing constraints.
What are the implications for the Sauds and the West? This book offers a startling look at the present predicament and a troubling view of the future.

Library Journal

Bradley worked in Saudi Arabia for two and a half years as a reporter for Arab News. His visa and residency permit, plus fluency in Arabic, allowed him to travel more freely in the kingdom than is common for Westerners and to get candid opinions from citizens at many levels of society. Here he depicts a country in which allegiance to the central authority is in strong conflict with other, more traditional allegiances, such as to tribe or region. Differences among groups within Islam are especially sharp in this country, and recent oil wealth and development imposed from the top down have created additional divisions. Bored, unemployed youth are exposed to Western cultural influences via satellite television and the web but are told in the mosque that this influence is decadent and corrupt. The crisis of the title, then, is the need to navigate the shoals of conflicting demands; the solution will need to come from within. Carmen bin Laden's recent Inside the Kingdom dealt with life for the upper classes; this covers lower classes and immigrant labor as well. Recommended as popular background reading on a country much in the news.-Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Biography

John R. Bradley worked as a journalist in Saudi Arabia for more than two
years. He was educated at University College London, Dartmouth College, and
Exeter College, Oxford. An Arabic speaker, he has written for The New
Republic, The Economist, the Washington Times, Salon, the Independent, the
London Telegraph, the London Sunday Times, Prospect, and the Times Literary
Supplement, and has been interviewed by CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS.