Perhaps on a sunny day I might have given it a 3-star rating. Unlike much of the Saudi-bashing literature available, John Bradley not only actually visited Saudi Arabia, he lived there for 2-3 years. Furthermore, he did travel around the country, giving the reader a feeling that there is much more than just a monolithic "Saudi" culture and attitude. There are the "flower men" of the Asir; there is the region of the far north, the Al Jawf basin; the Shiites of the Eastern province; and, of course, the "liberal' Hijaz, where he lived, as opposed to the conservative, "Wahhabi" heartland, the Nedj. When he focuses on a problem or a deficiency of Saudi society, occasionally, but only occasionally, he does make the point that the same problem exists in the West, for example when he is discussing the exploitation of foreign workers (p.122), he does say that it is a universal problem, and specifically singles out the United States as an offender. I also thought that if I had worked at the "Arab News," with the exigencies imposed on its numerous workers from the Indian sub-continent, perhaps I'd be in a foul mood also. But he does make some illuminating points regarding his journalist work, when he amusingly states that Thomas Friedman and Daniel Pipes see a "change in the Arab mindset" in reading the Arab News, yet it is actually Bradley who is writing the article. (p188)

The tone of the book, and certainly the attitude of the author, is established by the book's black cover, and the titillation of the title, "Saudi Arabia Exposed," another "ripping the veil asunder." He plays to that angle with statements like, in reference to foreigners: "....and were limited, (as were all foreigners, until recently) to traveling in only approved areas." (xii of the Introduction). Yet thousands and thousands of expatriates traveled freely throughout the country, going anywhere (save for Makkah and Medina for non-Muslims) since the `70's. Did he not ask one? He claims to be an Arabic speaker, yet translates the popular TV show, "Tash ma Tash" as "No big deal"! He had the opportunity to explain the title's antecedents, but apparently did not understand them. He describes the backwater that was Jeddah of the `30's (p10) as the "most cosmopolitan city of the Muslim world." What of Istanbul, Baghdad, Cairo and Tehran? He makes blanket assertions describing the Kingdom as: "it is a second-rate totalitarian regime incorporating some primitive feudal traditions. (p 157). He speaks much of the corruption and incompetence in the Kingdom, but never asks the question, is there more corruption and more incompetence in Washington, DC.

So I'd give Bradley some points for at least occasionally raising the comparative issues between Saudi and Western cultures, and not always assuming that the Western ones are superior, though his biases are clear. Overall though, he suffers from that smug journalist occupational hazard of visiting one place once, conducting an interview with someone who may or may not be telling him what he wants to hear, and then thinking that he understands the situation, because, well, if he did not, then he would not be a good journalist.

With the amount of attention the country gets in the western press, you'd think that there would be a metric ton of decent books out there on the modern history of Saudi Arabia. You'd be wrong.

This one by journalist John Bradley was recommended as a good one, since he was one of the few western journalists inside Saudi at the time of the 9/11 attacks he did have unqiue access. Too bad he can't write to save his life. The chronology of the book is confused. The sentence stucture is often awful, and what is often meant to be a telling detail instead comes off as contrived. I am shocked that he has written for publications like the Economist.

Though the writing is poor, in Bradley's defense, this book is at least somewhat balanced, and he clearly has a real affection for the culture and some of the people he met there. This isn't jingositic western propoganda (like much of what is written about Saudi) but it also isn't a very good book.

Bradley is a journalist who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for more than 2 years. This book describes what he observed, obviously from a Western perspective, while living there. Some of what he discusses has been covered in other books. For example, the strict segregation of men and women, the brutal public executions and the extreme corruption and hypocrisy of the Saudi royal family. He also mentions the poor education and professional training received by most Saudi citizens which requires the country to be dependent on foreign workers. Many of these workers are people from poor countries such as India, Pakistan and the Philippines who do the "dirty jobs" that, supposedly, Saudis don't want to do themselves. But I find this questionable since Bradley also describes the high rate of unemployment among Saudi citizens and the fact that many of them live in poverty while the Saudi royals bask in the enormous wealth generated by the oil business.

Bradley also talks about the good qualities of the typical Saudi person, such as kindness, hospitality and generosity. There are certain Western right-wingers and Christian zealots who have an anti-Muslim agenda and are clearly biased in their writings. But Bradley doesn't strike me as that sort of person. I think he is simply trying to explain his experiences in Saudi Arabia with as much honesty and truth as possible. Of course, he is seeing the country from the point of view of a non-Muslim Westerner. But that doesn't mean he is necessarily wrong in what he is saying.

However, what really takes this book to the "5 stars" level for me is that he elaborates on the regionally based political and cultural differences in the kingdom. He talks about the Hijaz area, including Jeddah, as having a long history as an international center of trade which makes it somewhat more liberal and sophisticated than the rest of the country. The southern region is called Asir and includes people who, in many ways, have more in common with the neighboring country of Yemen than with their fellow Saudis. Finally, there is the Eastern province which is largely made up of Shiite Muslims who, like the people from Hijaz and Asir, often finds themselves at odds with the Wahhabi dominated central region which includes the royal family and the Wahhabi religious establishment that controls the country politically. In other words, Saudi Arabia is a complex and diverse society with people from a variety of religious and cultural perspectives who are seeking to challenge the hold on power by the Wahhabis and the royal family. This is not the picture provided to the broader American public, who tend to recognize that the royals are corrupt but still see them as the lesser of two evils when compared to the Osama allied extremists. Obviously, the situation there is more complicated than most people think.

I actually came away feeling at least a little more optimistic about the future, or at least the potential, of the country. But, of course, Saudi Arabia still faces a tremendous amount of problems and what happens there will continue to be of vital importance to the rest of us, especially considering that the Saudis have 1/4 of the world's known supply of petroleum.

When one reads the truth about what goes on in Saudi Arabia one has to ponder 'why should it exist?' Why, in the 21st century, should a place like this exist? A place where women may not drive, may no leave the home without permission, may not attend colleges(that are usually U.S colleges supporting this disgusting discrimination), a place where certain sections in stores are 'off limits to women'.

A place where a small family controls a country, where minorities are raped and beheaded, where forieng workers are treated like slaves, where sex slaves are actually imported from the west to feed an insatiable lust by a ruling class that has divided the sexes and forced everyone to be 'moral' so that it can enjoy the worst forms of immorality.

Such a place could only be imagined, in hell maybe, and yet it exists just next door, and it is one of the U.S's best allies, a place where leading schools and journalists and 'liberal's support and coddle. The most educated and rich Saudis are the least liberal. Not a suprise. An explosive book, that will rattle you to the bone, unfortunatly the author didnt speak to any women(that is forbidden) and this takes away from the value of the book.

Seth J. Frantzman

These are some of the reviews reprinted on the author's website, johnrbradley:

"Bradley occupied for two years a privileged position from which to observe the evolution of the kingdom following the Sept. 11 attacks. [He] immersed himself in the world of the Saudis." LE MONDE

"A thoughtful, incisive portrait of a fractured nation... a remarkable volume." NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL

"The most revealing and important book on the real Saudi Arabia to have been published in years... Bradley gives the insights of a Saudi insider who knows and loves the country, and one who is also a Western journalist; he is someone who knows how the game is played on both sides, as very few Westerners do. " UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

"A highly informed, temperate, and understanding account of [the] country.... Bradley, although based in Jeddah, traveled far and wide throughout the country in an effort to map the regional tensions and cultural distinctions that make Saudi Arabia much more diverse and complicated than the smooth propaganda of its government would allow." THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Bradley's book... could not be more timely. Brimming with hard-won information, it lifts the lid on a key Arab country." AL-AHRAM WEEKLY

"A book recommendation: Several reviewers call Saudi Arabia Exposed... the best work on the country in decades." KNIGHT RIDDER

"[Bradley] uses a graceful journalist's pen to write with scholarly authority and shows a sensitivity rare for a Westerner, reaching directly to the society's core." THE NATION

"Offers insight into Saudi life seldom reported in the West.... Bradley had a rare opportunity to travel, meet people from different backgrounds, and... experience the 'downstairs' side of life there." THE NEW YORK POST

"For readers interested in the social forces at work in the country, including terrorism, Bradley provides perceptive access to current trends." BOOKLIST

"Contribute[s] significantly to the debate.... Bradley had a unique vantage." LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Bradley is at his best when he writes about the press, providing what is truly an insider's look and untangling some of the knotted ties between the media, the Saudi government and the United States." PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"Recommended as popular background reading on a country much in the news." LIBRARY JOURNAL

"The author's empathy for the ordinary, the customary and the contingent... makes this a remarkable book." THE STRAITS TIMES

I must say that I didn't have any expectations when I ordered the book and I was shockingly surprised.

Thank you, Mr. Bradley, for writing this book. The book is overall very well written and has the strength of personal experience. I wish that Mr. Bradley has given more "people" examples in most chapters, and that the chapters were a bit more focused, but the book carries much information that is both invaluable and deeply penetrating into Saudi state and national soul.

I would advise that the book be read by everybody, especially by politicians and businessmen having any type of power. Please, send it to most of our US politicians! I believe that reading this book will help them grasp better whom they are dealing with when having any type of business with Saudi Arabia.

I knew that Saudi Arabia was bad, but never imagined that it is so corrupted, depraved, self-exalting, and degraded one. Above all, it is indeed an evil, evil, evil (X many times) country.

To all women: Do NOT marry a Saudi!
To all foreigners: Get OUT of Saudi Arabia!
To everyone else: Do NOT deal with Saudis!

Most of what little we know of Saudi Arabia comes from little snippets we get on TV or in the popular press. Here at last, is a current, well-written story of Saudi Arabia told by a western journalist who actually lived there.

I believe that he is right wneh he said this is a kingdom in crisis. While Osama bin Laden clearly has America in his sights as an enemy, he apparently considers it his devine duty to take over Saudi Arabia. Combine this with a huge number of non-Saudi workers, with internal conflict combine from groups excluded from the power structure and you get a country with gret potential for trouble.

Mr. Bradley presents a view of Saudi Arabia from the inside. It's a story of a few at the top holding down a much larger population. This is a situation seen in many times, in many blaces before. Some of these have lasted for a very long time, but others have fallen apart.

The one point I would have liked to have seen explored in more detail is the nature of the oil situation. I ralize that this is not his area of expertise, but some understanding of the Saudi's oil situation as seen from inside the country would be nice to know.

For decades, the real face of Saudi Arabia has been shrouded in opaque. First, by the country's remoteness, then by its myriad of restrictions on personal freedoms to both its citizens and foreigners, and lastly by the royal family, who has invested millions of dollars in a public relations campaign aimed at obscuring unflattering information altogether, or in constructing a disjointed hagiography.

For many who have lived in the Middle East, or closely followed events there, genuine insight and hard information about what life is like in the Kingdom has come only from placing a string of anecdotes by visitors.

In "Saudi Arabia Exposed," John R. Bradley has written, perhaps, the best current book on the Kingdom, revealing an unflattering portrait of a dysfunctional society coming apart at the seams. He does from a peculiar vantage point, as an editor of the English language "Arab News," where he lived and worked INSIDE the Kingdom for three years.

An Oxford-educated, Arabic-speaker, Bradley was able to come into direct contact with a society that few Westerners no much about.

Bradley does so with a journalists writing style, giving a primer to readers about the creation of the Kingdom, the state ideology of Wahhabism, and how its impacts are felt inside the kingdom by its subjects. He does so effectively, often graphically, painting a picture with vivid colors and textures.

The Saudis have spent millions of dollars paying authors to write laudatory books that have little meaning, other than to somehow sanitize the image of the kingdom and the royal family. Bradley's book, however, is a powerful and believable antidote to the Saudi's pr campaign. This is one of a handful of books that THE ROYAL FAMILY DOES NOT WANT YOU TO READ!!!

If you want to learn how the average Saudi lives, the lives of foreigners, and how crime, drug abuse and high-level government corruption all play out in everyday life, then Bradley's book is a must-read.

And, for that reason alone, Bradley's work should be on the reading list of anyone interested about the current affairs of the Middle East and an uncertain future for the region, upon which Saudi Arabia's fate will play a significant role.

As an old Middle East hand, I can say that "Saudi Arabia Exposed" is one of the four best books I've read on the region in the past 10 years.

John R. Bradley is an Oxford educated British journalist who attempts to maintain the fascade of jounalistic objectivity as he shares with you what he learned and observed in his travels throughout Saudia Arabia and in his dialouge with Saudi's from different walks of life. While the reader will benefit from the observations of this intelligent Westerner, those observations are nonetheless couched in an arrogant worldview that prescribes that everyone adopting a "liberal" tolerant and non-judgemental attitude is the solution to all the worlds problems.

Of course in a previous generation people like Bradley thought the aspiriations of Communism were going to solve the worlds problems until that unshakable "truth" was torn down.

For those readers who think that attempting to build societies on the doctrines of the Gospel is a good idea, as did America's Founding Father (and the even the flawed monarchs of Britian), you may take some offence at the Bradley arrogance. Of course it would never occur to Bradley to look to Jesus Christ as a model of how we should live. For him a far better place to look is the wisdom the United Nations, the bureacrats in Belgium and intellectuals in Europe and leftist American universities.

The semi-lurid title of this book should not deter anyone from reading it -- nor should it convince any reader that he or she is getting all the lowdown on a country that everyone, it seems, has been bashing since Sept. 11, 2001. Bradford's insights into Saudi Arabia seem valid, but they remain the impressions of just one man, however knowledgable.

The most important thing I learned from Bradford (and I hasten to say that I am no expert on Saudi Arabia) is that this nation is not some monolithic kingdom chock full of fanatical Muslims loyal to the Saud family. Bradford demonstrates that the Arabian peninsula (or that part of it ruled by the Saudis) is a diverse place; there are other families and ethnic groups whose allegiance to the Saud family is pragmatic at best and in some cases rather tenuous. It is this diversity that, in part, is responsible for the Saud family's repressiveness and sometimes violent supression of dissent.

Bradford also indicates that dissent, or the potential for dissent, is widespread among the Saudi tribe as well as other subjects. The Saud family seems to be caught between forces that would pull it toward an increasingly Westernized culture or toward an Islamic government even more repressive than the current regime. Bradford portrays a kingdom that is desperately trying to find a way to accommodate the modern world without offending traditionalists -- a problem not unique to either Saudi Arabia or Islam.

For all the value of Bradford's insights (and he did have unusual access for a Westerner, even one proficient in Arabic), there is a sense that "Saudi Arabia Exposed" rehashes several older articles from The Arab News, for which Bradford worked in Jiddah. Although what's here is well-organized, there is a sense of shallowness based on the fact that this book consists largely of the observations of one writer -- again, however knowledgable. First-person observations can be of great value, no doubt, but they not do necessarily make for a thorough assessment of any subject -- especially one as complex as Saudi Arabia is for most Western readers.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the subject, but this should not be the only book one reads about Saudi Arabia. Like it or not, the United States and the non-Islamic world generally are going to need to continue an accommodation with the Saudis, gently encouraging the liberalizing forces in their culture and politics without raising the old spectres of colonialism and mindless religious antagonism. Bradford offers hope that liberalization can work in Saudi Arabia, but he also provides a bleak picture of the obstacles that the kingdom's Western-oriented reformers need to overcome.

Glaring omission: Not a single map! And a "cast of characters" would have been nice -- no offense, but it's difficult to pick out who's who among all the Faisals and Alis and Abdullahs in the Saud family, past and present.

(PRWEB) September 12, 2005 -- A controversial new book by widely published Middle East correspondent John R. Bradley, "Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis," is being hailed by critics as "the best book on the country in decades," according to a prominent Knight Ridder columnist.

Bill Tammeus also personally recommends the title in his latest syndicated column.

"Saudi Arabia Exposed" has already been praised by The New York Times as "highly insightful," by Newsweek as "remarkable," and by the Los Angeles Times as contributing "significantly to the debate" because of Mr. Bradley's "unique vantage."

Library Journal wrote in its review of "Saudi Arabia Exposed" that the book is "recommended as popular background reading on a country much in the news."

And Booklist added: "For readers interested in the social forces at work in the country, including terrorism, Bradley provides perceptive access to current trends."

The book was withdrawn from UK publication by the publisher at the last minute, according to the Newsweek review, which cited the UK's harsh libel laws as the reason. Newsweek also reported that the title was "anxiously received" by Saudi officials because it comes at such a "key moment" in the kingdom's short history.

According to the publisher, Palgrave Macmillan, "Saudi Arabia Exposed" is already in its 4th printing.

Extraordinary Insights

Mr. Bradley, an Oxford-educated, 35-year-old British author and journalist, who is about to embark on the second leg of a major author tour in the United States, was the only permanently-based, fully accredited Arabic-speaking Western journalist in Saudi Arabia for 2.5 years, from three months before 9/11.

A former editor of the Jeddah-based Arab News, he was uniquely able to travel throughout all of the kingdom's regions -- crucially without a government minder.

From the heart of urban centers to Saudi Arabia's most remote mountainous terrain, from the royalty to the destitute who inhabit the kingdom's slums, Mr. Bradley introduces readers to fascinating people and places and unveils the workings of this mysterious society.

He provides intimate details of underlying regional, religious, and tribal rivalries, and highlights the tensions generated by social change.

Also revealed is the restlessness of Saudi youth torn between the security of tradition and the appeal of the West, and the predicament of Saudi women seeking opportunities but facing constraints.

In the latest issue of The Nation, long-time New Yorker writer Milton Viorst writes that in "Saudi Arabia Exposed" Mr. Bradley "uses a graceful journalist's pen to write with scholarly authority" and "shows a sensitivity rare for a Westerner, reaching directly to the society's core."

The reviewer who wrote that this is a "disappointing must-read" sounds like a Brit-hater from the US (which is odd since Bradley writes almost all his articles in the US, and this US edition of Saudi Arabia Exposed is the only one available as far as I can work out).

In any case, the other reviewer gets this book completely wrong. Maybe he is planning to write a book of his own, and is jealous because John R. Bradley got there first? He sounds like he is promoting his own ideas, which it turn sound like those put forward by apologists for the Saudi regime (former Western diplomats on the pay roll etc).

Of course, as with any book, it is possible to find a list of what it does not deal with. The question is: does it deal successfully with the topics it does highlight?

In The Nation, veteran New Yorker writer Milton Viorst -- who has covered the Middle East for three decades, including Saudi Arabia -- says that Bradley "uses a graceful journalist's pen to write with scholarly authority" and "shows a sensitivity rare for a Westerner, reaching directly to the society's core."

I couldn't have put it better myself.

There is a popular blog called The Religious Policeman (which I highly recommend, even if the blogger's Saudi nationality does seem a bit dubious). He picked up on The Nation review of Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis by John R. Bradley, and has the following useful commentary. (struck me as useful, anyhow). I have ordered this book as a result, but have not yet read it, so can't comment on its contents!

From "The Religious Policeman" (the quotes are from The Nation's review, obviously):

John is:

"An Arabic-speaking ex-editor of the English-language Arab News, he uses a graceful journalist's pen to write with scholarly authority. He lived for several years in Jeddah, in the Hejaz, a sector of the peninsula that has resisted Wahhabi puritanism since the Sauds conquered it nearly a century ago. Bradley's work shows a sensitivity rare for a Westerner, reaching directly to the society's core."

John points his finger very accurately at a major social problem:

"Bradley recognizes, for example, the dangers to social stability of the 60 percent of Saudis who are under 21. Poorly educated, living at home where they are coddled by parents and foreign servants, without qualifications for administrative jobs but refusing manual work, they are utterly directionless. All contacts with the other sex are forbidden. These youth spread their discontent over the Internet, but otherwise boredom hangs over them "like a toxic cloud." Crime among the young and jobless has risen nearly fivefold since 1990. Their life, Bradley says, promotes feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, leading "some to wantonness and others to the straight and narrow of fundamentalism."

He also outlines one of the hidden dimensions of Saudi society.

"Whatever his other strengths, Bradley is at his most impressive in dealing with the subtle political ramifications of Saudi Arabia's tribal system, about which Westerners know almost nothing. He reminds us that more than once in the past century or so, the Sauds have had to face tribal uprisings, which they suppressed brutally, and that tribal rivalry is far from over."

Try getting a police or armed forces job with a name that's not "pure arab". Potential applicants with any suggestion of Shiite or foreign ancestry need not apply.