Customer Reviews

The Saudis

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book presents a fairly empathic view of the Saudis. It doesn't absolve them of the harshness that often makes up part of their lives, but it doesn't dwell on them either. I find it objective and balanced.

The only real problem with the book is that, as others have noted, it is very out of date. The few pages added to this edition don't really cover the incredible transformations that have happened in the country since Ms. MacKey lived there. It really should have been re-written.

A better, contemporary book is Thomas Lippman's "Inside the Mirage", current up to 2002. Even that has already been overtaken by political events in some regards, the information is far more applicable to modern Saudi Arabia.

Actually, as a Western woman, living in Saudi Arabia for the past year, I found the book very interesting and well-balanced. It largely fits with many of my own perceptions of the country, and provided a very clear historical overview of the time between the old boom of the early seventies and the beginnings of political upheaval of the mid-eighties.

HOWEVER, although calling itself an "updated version" -- with this stamped on the cover of the book -- there is little updating apart from the 3 1/2 page Introduction and the 11 page Afterword. I was so disappointed, for example, in the chapter on The World Creeps Closer to find NO updating, at all, as this book was written during the Iran - Iraq war.

In fact, it jars the reader, because of this. The use of present tense in the chapters discussing things 15 years previous to the 2002 publication date is confusing, at best, and misleading at worst. I don't think the few pages tacked on at the beginning and the end, make up for this, unfortunately.

It seems to be cashing in on the 9/11 tragedy, with minimal effort on the part of the author and/or editors. Very disappointing, that!

Since I lived in Taif & Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) for 20 years, I believe I have a good grasp of the life in that country. I bought this book even though friends who lived in Saudi Arabia had warned me that I would be disappointed--that the writing was stilted, but most importantly, the author had missed too many important points about Saudi life. Actually, Ms. Mackey's distant observations made me feel she was out of touch with the real Saudi Arabia and with real Saudi Arabians.

Once I realized that this book was written many years ago, and that the author had very obviously spent very few years inside the Kingdom and then has not been back for nearly twenty years, I was quite dismayed.

As someone who spent many years as a guest inside the desert Kingdom, there are books on Saudi Arabia that I would recommend, including Robert Lacey's "The Kingdom" and Jean Sasson's "Princess," but I would not recommend this particular book.

I picked up this book a while ago. After living in Saudi for about 12 years I was curious to see how a western author would describe Saudi. My conclusion after reading it is that the book is full of inaccuracies and generalizations. Instead I'd recommned several other books like The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'Ud, by Robert Lacey, Oil Monarchies: Domestic and Security Challenges in the Arab Gulf States, by Gregory Gause, and the best book I've seen written about Saudi that shows some of the cultural nuances of the country: Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent, by Mamoun Fandy.

Referring to the older version of the book: As a trained Political Scientist who worked in the area of economic planning part of the time she was in Saudi Arabia, the author does a very nice job of exploring the real crisis of inflexible Saudi traditionalism when first really confronted with the demands of modernity -- the weird mix of naivete, arrogance, and fear. We can see the reverberations still.

She's actually a lot less biased and more even-handed than a lot of newer books, and it's extremely readable and entertaining as well as informative. She touches on more aspects of Saudi lifestyle in one book than all of the half-dozen other books I've read combined -- urban and rural development, health care, economics, religion, education, sexuality, social psychology, and domestic and foreign politics. She is best as a political scientist-sociologist, OK as an anthropologist, and weaker as a social psychologist -- but even there, not bad.

This is a solid and fairly comprehensive foundation for understanding how modern Saudi Arabia came to be as it is, but it is not the place to stop.

Since 9/11 I have read everything I could read on the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia, in particular. I was thrilled when I saw this book. I was disappointed from page one.

In my opinion, this writer did not spend enough time in the country to get a handle on it--a few years only--what I call parachute journalism--also, she writes that she lived closed in a Western compound. This is very limiting for a writer.

The writing shows it. I felt I was reading what she had been told or had "heard." I may be wrong, and if so, apologies.

There are plenty of other great books out there about Saudi Arabia. As a reader of many books about the Middle East, I must tell the painful truth. In my opinion, this is not a book to bother with.

As others have noted, this book was written in the late 80's, early 90's and, given the pace of change in our society, it's not just dated but, in places, it's almost quaint.

That said, this book needs to be required reading for any serious student of the Middle East, or anyone who's wondering how we got where we are - and what can we do about it? "The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom" is a foundational primer on Saudi Arabia and serves as an excellent introduction for all your future reading on the topic.

Sandra writes, "Without doubt, the West's view of Saudi Arabia is distorted. ... Much of this anti-Westernism is born of frustration with American policy toward Israel and Europe's inability to win something concrete for the Palestinians."

However, for the Saudi's, the frustration was much more personal. Much of the confusing relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States grew out of a dawning realization of the part of the House of Saud that they literally couldn't protect their desert kingdom militarily. For many years, Saudi defense plans were based on what was called, the "American Option." This was, primarily, having just enough troops to stall an attacker until American military might could swoop in to save the al Sauds, but not enough military to organize an effective coup and depose the royal family.

Confidence in America's commitment to protecting its allies began to collapse with the events in Iran that lead to deposing of the Shah and the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini. While Carter dithered, Saudi Arabia sent increasingly more blatant signals to the US that surrender to a radical Islamic regime would be a disaster for Saudi Arabia and the entire region. The tone deaf Carter did nothing and the anti-western traditionalists in the royal family triumphantly seized on America's failure to even grant the Shah asylum as proof of western perfidy. Even the pro-western elements in the family had to be nervous at this betrayal of a long-time (if problematic) US ally. This disaster was followed by Soviet incursions in Ethiopia and Afghanistan, with only weak US opposition (boycotting the 1980 Olympic games, held in Moscow, was strongest response the Carter administration could muster.)

"The al-Sauds as a result came to believe that by tying themselves too closely to the United States they were guaranteeing neither the throne nor their personal protection in case of political turmoil. Furthermore, the United States not only failed to move protect the Shah but had allowed a regime to come to power that was determined to destroy American presence in the gulf and to pull down the House of Saud. ... [F]or Saudi Arabia, the United States as the ultimate security guarantor in a grand strategic design was a concept that had failed."

In 1986, Saudi Arabia got caught up in the Reagan administration ill-considered Iranian Arms imbroglio. "Every innuendo that linked Saudi Arabia to the affair added fuel to the widespread dissatisfaction within the Kingdom, for the revelations coming out of Washington tripped anti-Western emotions[.]"

As a consequence of the serial mismanagement of the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia (on both sides of the American political aisle), "[t]oday's Saudi is reaching not toward modernization but toward the security of Islam, the gateway to the past."

" ... [T]he great dividing line between the Saudis and the Westerners is religion. Islam for the Saudis is more than a theology, it is an entire way of life. Religion is the central force of their existence. Religion is life and life religion."

She writes respectfully about Islam and the Prophet (PBUH) who revealed it. She gets a few things wrong. In the quote above about "religion is life and life religion" Sandra acts as if this is something unique to Saudi Arabia and not the religious practices of every Muslim in the world. She also writes in various places about Muhammad (PBUH) founding a "new" religion (instead of a restoration of the authentic faith revealed to Adam, practiced by Ibrahim and all the prophets that followed - but that's another review for another time!).

Sandra suffers from none of the west's prejudices towards Islam. Insightfully she quotes "... a Western-educated, middle class Saudi, `The problem here is not Islam. The problem is too many young men with no job and no university and nowhere to go except to the mosque, where some [radical preachers] fill their heads with anger for America.'

"[t]he portrayal of internal politics in Saudi Arabia as a contest between Westernized moderates and puritanical Wahabbis is grossly oversimplified. [...] In truth, the modernizers and the traditionalists occupy parts of each other's realm. No matter how Westernized they regard themselves, the modernizers neither are able to not want to escape their own culture, for Islam weaves it's way into every aspect of Saudi culture, mandating that every Saudi is to some degree an Islamist. By the same token, Islamists have not escaped or totally rejected the forces of modernization. As an example, the most militant and influential Islamists now post their sermons calling for a return to the past on the Internet."

Sandra Mackey writes with obvious love for the Saudis, their culture and their country. As a western woman, she can't help but shake her head over what her western perspective considers injustice (the status of women) or just undesirable (a love of exaggerated flattery.) These flavor her accounts, even though she struggles, and for the most part succeeds, to remain impartial.

This was a well written history of the country of Saudi Arabia
and the people who live there.You are able to get a concise history of the Royal family(Saud) and the Kings who have served in Saudi Arabia.One of the most interesting sections of the book
was the formation of ARAMCO.This is a consortium of the four oil companies who developed the oil industry in Saudi Arabia.Another
interesting part of the book was President Roosevelt's visit to
the country during World War II.I also got a kick about the
description of camel racing that takes place in Saudi Arabia.This
is a very good book about Saudi Arabia. It is very readable and
you will enjoy it.

This is a fantastic book that gives you a great inside look into a country full of changes and hard to understand.Mrs Mackey really captures what happened in Saudi Arabia in the last years of the 1970's and the first years of the 80's regarding the oil boom in that country.She experienced first hand what the changes brought to the Saudis in their personal,cultural and religious life.This book not only helped me understand much better the Saudis and their economic impact in the oil business but also helped understand them as a people and as a culture.I believe that Mrs Mackey wrote a fascinating account that takes you deep in to arabian society.Her narrative is alive and her descriptions are sharp and capture the images and mood of the times.For me it was like i was walking thru the markets and bazaars with her at my side as a tour guide.Excellent book by an excellent author.

In 1970, Iraq was allowing women to fly fighter planes. Iran was preparing to "create a second America" in just a few years. Nasser was still guiding Egypt. And Saudi Arabia had virtually no paved roads, one rickety railroad, one ancient international airport, and so little port capacity that the few supermarkets in the country couldn't be stocked.

By 1978, virtually every Saudi had a car, a new home, a farm, or whatever they wanted. Riyadh had a Saks store and toilet attendants gave people Chanel No. 5 to wash their hands with.

Sandra Mackey details the upheaval of the late 1970s and early 1980s from the perspective of a female foreign journalist living in fear that the government would find out what she was doing. Now that Saudis are constantly accused of Xenophobia, this book gives an important glimpse into the treatment of Westerners (and all foreigners) in Saudi Arabia during the oil boom. It is not a tell-all insider's book, but rather an interesting description of how much (little?) an American women was able to penetrate the secrecy of Saudi life.

[The book itself was written in 1987 and has not been updated, with good reason. The Saudi government would imprison Sandra Mackey if she ever tried to return there.]