The Kingdom: Saudi Arabia and the Challenge of the Twenty-first Century (Columbia/Hurst) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231154348 ISBN 13: 9780231154345

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Since its launch in 2006, SaudiDebate.com has become the foremost independent, English-language Web site to address issues facing contemporary Saudi Arabians. Adhering to a nonpartisan stance, the site fosters open debate between distinguished contributors from across the Arab world, quickly making it the chosen destination for perspectives on Arabia and the wider Arab Middle East.

The Kingdom brings together for the first time a targeted selection of these writings, providing readers with much-needed context for the role of Saudi Arabia in the world today. Contributors include such established figures as Madawi Al-Rasheed, Khalid Al-Dakhil, Badriyyah Al-Bishr, Saad Sowayan, and Mona Eltahawy. Chapter topics range from reformism under King Abdullah to Saudi Arabia's position as a regional power broker, speaking to the breadth of issues that currently preoccupy Saudis and other Arab intellectuals.

This collection particularly illuminates the struggle to build a modern society with respect to religious, cultural, and historical traditions. Divided into four sections, the volume specifically tackles domestic politics in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's role in regional affairs, studies of Saudi society, and Saudi cultural and religious life.

About this title

About the Author:

Joshua Craze is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. He studied anthropology at Oxford University, was a researcher at EHESS, and graduated from the University of Amsterdam.Mark Huband is an award-winning journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent for the Financial Times. He is the author of several books, including Warriors of the Prophet: The Struggle for Islam.

Review:

The Kingdom is unlike any other book on Saudi Arabia. Fascinating essays by distinguished academics and journalists take the reader on a journey through identity, society, and the politics of one of the world's most powerful, surviving traditional monarchies. At times wonderfully unconventional, these essays move the debate away from dry, laborious, and often impersonal political economy studies. They allow for a new understanding of this enigmatic state through a lens of literature, poetry, political theory, and very high quality journalism.

(Christopher Davidson, author of Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success)

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0231154348
• ISBN 13: 9780231154345
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Huband Mark, Craze Joshua