Inside the Kingdom

The complex story of what's been happening within Saudi Arabia - while the West wasn't lookingSaudi 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.

“Beautifully written and thought-provoking ... Robert Lacey has written a highly accomplished book which should go into the bags of anyone who has to travel to the kingdom”

Literary Review
Compelling ... [I] know of no book that captures so convincingly the intimate connection between the kingdom and the rise of al-Qaeda and its jihadist ideology...What distinguishes Mr Lacey's account is his use of Saudi voices - many of them, even in this most reticent of cultures, on the record - to anatomise a deeply rooted culture of intolerance Economist
Incisive ... The real triumph of this book ... is the way it peels away the layers of mystery that shroud a civil society of which we have almost no knowledge Sunday Times

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.

'Compelling ... [I] know of no book that captures so convincingly the intimate connection between the kingdom and the rise of al-Qaeda and its jihadist ideology' Economist Saudi Arabia plays a crucial role in our interdependent 21st-century world. It is a country of fabulous wealth - the world's largest oil producer - whose princes and businessmen raise futuristic cities in the desert. Yet it is also notorious for producing fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 suicide bombers and fostering fundamentalist clerics who want to turn the clock back to the time of the Prophet Mohammed. Bestselling author Robert Lacey has known the kingdom well for thirty years. Here, he depicts the nation, post 9/11, struggling to re-align itself around the concepts it once scorned: religious tolerance, human rights, political accountability - though not yet democracy - and, most challenging of all, equal rights for women. If the kingdom can succeed in this battle, the consequences will be profound - for its own society and for the troubled Middle East. 'A book of startling insights ... Lacey's sympathetic engagement with the struggles, triumphs and defeats of average Saudi men and women makes Inside the Kingdom both compelling reading and an important contribution to building greater understanding between Saudi Arabia and the west' Financial Times 'Beautifully written and thought-provoking ... A highly accomplished book which should go into the bags of anyone who has to travel to the Kingdom' Literary Review

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