The ongoing crisis in the Persian Gulf has turned the eyes of the world to events in a distant desert. And while the politics of the powerful, oil-rich Saudis have become of strategic importance to the U.S., their small desert kingdom remains a land of contradictions. Now the veil is lifted on this fascinating nation in a compelling inside look at Saudi Arabia's culture- shock transformation from a Bedouin kingdom in the desert to an influential world power at the center of an international crisis.
Saudi Arabia is a secret, closed society ruled by an absolute monarch. But because of its tremendous oil resources, strategic location, and the influx of new materials, ideas, and people, it has been swept into the twentieth century. This remarkable book gets to the heart of what goes on in Saudi society and government, and provides an in-depth chronicle of the "oil boom" years, as this medieval nomadic society clashes with the intrusion of foreigners, wealth, and technology, and struggles for a vital place of power in the modern world.