Palgrave Macmillan. 06/11/2005. 224 pgs. The House of Saud has ruled over a vast and powerful kingdom for nearly a century, holding it together through a combination of money from oil and the promotion of a strict Wahhabi sect of Islam. British journalist John R. Bradley has traveled around the kingdom, and he reports on social and cultural forces of resistance that might, in the near future, result in stunning changes. He reports on a lessening of the Wahhabi influence in the outer regions, especially in areas where the Shiites dominate. He also sees liberalizing influences among the merchant class, including a tolerance of homosexuality and a nascent feminism, and he sees a growing consumerism and interest in the gadgets of the West, along with as growing disappointment in the standard of living. Perhaps most significant is the country's aimless and disaffected youth, which, says Bradley, is ripe for recruitment by terrorist groups. In Bradley's analysis, the authoritarian country that is supposedly America's strong ally in the region may have within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Originally published at $22.95 You save 96% off the cover price!

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Waterbrook Pr. 10/10/2006. 210 pgs. Originally published at $13.99 You save 86% off the cover price!

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