Saudi Arabia is a country defined by paradox: it sits atop some of the richest oil deposits in the world, and yet the country's roiling disaffection produced sixteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers. It is a modern state, driven by contemporary technology, and yet its powerful religious establishment would have its customs and practices rolled back to match those of the Prophet Muhammed over a thousand years ago. In a world where events in the Middle East continue to have geopolitical consequences far beyond the region's boundaries, an understanding of this complex nation is essential.

WithInside the Kingdom, British journalist and bestselling author Robert Lacey has given us one of the most penetrating and insightful looks at Saudi Arabia ever produced. More than twenty years after he first moved to the country to write about the Saudis at the end of the oil boom, Lacey has returned to find out how the consequences of the boom produced a society at war with itself.

Filled with stories told by a broad range of Saudis, from high princes and ambassadors to men and women on the street, Inside the Kingdomis in many ways the story of the Saudis in their own words.

Robert Lacey is a British journalist and the author of the bestselling booksMajestyandFord: The Men and the Machine, among others. In 1979, he moved with his family to Saudi Arabia for eighteen months to research his book,The Kingdom, an eye-opening and penetrating study of that country's complex and often paradoxical culture. For the past three years he has split his time between Saudi Arabia and London, gathering material for this book.

The complex story of what's been happening within Saudi Arabia - while the West wasn't looking