The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud
by Said K. Aburish
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Book Summary Information
Author: Said K. AburishEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1996-09
ISBN: 0312161190
Number of pages: 356
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Book Reviews of The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud
Book Review: Exposes the immorality of the Saudi royal family brilliantly
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent account of the history of the Saudi royal family. The book begins by blowing away the myths surrounding the first House Of Saud monarch, Ibn Saud, who is invariably described by Middle East 'experts' as the unifier of the tribes of Arabia and the man who brought them out of the dark ages and into the Twentieth Century. Aburish completely deconstructs this widely held view and shows how Ibn Saud was basically used by the British as a bargain basement monarch to act as a front man for their oil companies. He then goes on to show how this role was taken over from the British by the Americans after WWII and how the Americans refused to become involved in Saudi Arabia's internal affairs in a responsible way (i.e. influencing the royals to build schools, hospitals etc) as the British had done in their colonies. Instead they pandered to the royal family's every whim, encouraging the House Of Saud to see the countries wealth as their own personal possession. This led to widespread corruption and both social and political injustice on a massive scale. Aburish then goes on to document the misdeeds of each one of the kings and their most wayward relations (of whom there are many), revealing the House Of Saud as an inherently immoral institution. He also goes into some detail of their effects on the wider Arab world, their opposition to moves towards democracy in the Gulf States and Yemen and their control of Arab press in most other Arab countries, most importantly the pan-Arab press centred in Beirut. He goes on to show the similarities between the House Of Saud's reign and the Reza Shah's in Iran - we all know what happened there. Despite the fact that this book was written in 1994, the author's arguments are so persuasively made and so well backed up with excellent research that as you finish it you can't help but agree that it is just a matter of time before the Saudi monarchy falls. And you will certainly agree that that is no bad thing either.
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