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Bestseller
BestsellerE-book
Author Jones, Toby Craig, 1972-

Title Desert kingdom : how oil and water forged modern Saudi Arabia / Toby Craig Jones.

Publication Info. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2010.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (312 pages)
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents The nature of the state -- Imperial geology -- The dogma of development -- Engineering the garden -- The black gold coast -- The wages of oil -- Nature's retreat.
Summary "Oil And Water, and the science and technology used to harness them, have long been at the heart of political authority in Saudi Arabia. Oil's abundance, and the fantastic wealth it generated, has been a keystone in the political primacy of the kingdom's ruling family. The other bedrock element was water, whose importance was measured by its dearth. Over much of the twentieth century, it teas through efforts to control and manage oil and water that the modern state of Saudi Arabia emerged." "The central government's power over water, space, and people expanded steadily over time, enabled by increasing oil revenues. The operations of the Arabian American Oil Company proved critical to expansion and to achieving power over the environment. Political authority in Saudi Arabia took shape through global networks of oil, science, and expertise. And, where oil and water were central to the forging of Saudi authoritarianism, they were also instrumental in shaping politics on the ground. Nowhere was the impact more profound than in the oil-rich Eastern Province, where the politics of oil and water led to a yearning for national belonging and to calls for revolution." "Saudi Arabia is traditionally viewed through the lenses of Islam, tribe, and the economics of oil. Desert Kingdom now provides an alternative history of environmental power and the making of the modern Saudi stare. It demonstrates how vital the exploitation of nature and the roles of science and global experts were to the consolidation of political authority in the desert."--Jacket.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Saudi Arabia -- Politics and government -- 20th century.
Saudi Arabia.
Politics and government.
Chronological Term 20th century
Subject Natural resources -- Government policy -- Saudi Arabia -- History -- 20th century.
Natural resources -- Government policy.
History.
Natural resources.
Water resources development -- Government policy -- Saudi Arabia -- History -- 20th century.
Water resources development -- Government policy.
Water -- Government policy -- Saudi Arabia -- History -- 20th century.
Water -- Government policy.
Water.
Petroleum industry and trade -- Government policy -- Saudi Arabia -- History -- 20th century.
Petroleum industry and trade -- Government policy.
Chronological Term 1900 - 1999
Genre/Form Electronic books.
History.
Other Form: Print version: Jones, Toby Craig, 1972- Desert kingdom. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2010 9780674049857 (DLC) 2010013253 (OCoLC)555658501
ISBN 9780674059405 (electronic book)
0674059409 (electronic book)
9780674049857
0674049853