Saudi Arabia
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€17.99
A01=David Commins
Arabian Peninsula
Author_David Commins
Bedouin
Category=NHG
emirate
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
forthcoming
Islam
Jeddah
MBS
Mecca
Medina
Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud
Najd
oil
Red Sea
Riyadh
Saud
Wahhabism
Product details
- ISBN 9780300286892
- Dimensions: 127 x 197mm
- Publication Date: 25 Aug 2026
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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A major new history of Saudi Arabia, from its eighteenth-century origins to the present day
Saudi Arabia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, a major player on the international stage and the site of Islam’s two holiest cities. It is also one of the world’s only absolute monarchies. How did Saudi Arabia get to where it is today?
In this comprehensive account, David Commins narrates the full history of Saudi Arabia from oasis emirate to present-day attempts to leap to a post-petroleum economy. Moving through the ages, Commins traces how the Saud dynasty’s reliance on sectarianism, foreign expertise, and petroleum to stabilize power has unintentionally spawned secular and religious movements seeking accountability and justice. He incorporates the experiences of activists, women, religious minorities, Bedouin, and expatriate workers as the country transformed from subsistence agrarian life to urban consumer society.
This is a perceptive portrait of Saudi Arabia’s complex and evolving story—and a country that is all too easily misunderstood.
Saudi Arabia is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, a major player on the international stage and the site of Islam’s two holiest cities. It is also one of the world’s only absolute monarchies. How did Saudi Arabia get to where it is today?
In this comprehensive account, David Commins narrates the full history of Saudi Arabia from oasis emirate to present-day attempts to leap to a post-petroleum economy. Moving through the ages, Commins traces how the Saud dynasty’s reliance on sectarianism, foreign expertise, and petroleum to stabilize power has unintentionally spawned secular and religious movements seeking accountability and justice. He incorporates the experiences of activists, women, religious minorities, Bedouin, and expatriate workers as the country transformed from subsistence agrarian life to urban consumer society.
This is a perceptive portrait of Saudi Arabia’s complex and evolving story—and a country that is all too easily misunderstood.
David Commins is the Benjamin Rush Chair in the Liberal Arts and Sciences and professor of history at Dickinson College. He is the author of Islam in Saudi Arabia, The Gulf States, and The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia.
