http://www.amazon.com/House-Saud-Powerful-...7676&sr=1-1
ArrayWhen I opened this book and read that the author was murdered in Cairo :d:before finishing it, I began to get an idea of what I was getting into. Holden, a writer for the London Times, chronicles the rise of the Saudi Royal family beginning with the seizure of power by Ibn Saud in 1901. Many people neglect to position North African and the Middle East in World War II, but Holden recognizes how conflicts in these regions continue to be a problem today. Churchill carved up Kuwait, inciting future Iraqi aggression, and John Foster Dulles hobnobbed with the slick prince Feisal. Feisal was seen most recently in a picture in the New Yorker chatting it up with Muhammed Bin Laden, father of you know who, back in the `50's. Cars, planes, diamonds, Aristotle Onanasis, the Suez canal. To understand the role of the Saudis in world events is complicated, and Holden's book is often dry with details. His sense of humor saves him, describing incidents where Ibn Saud's successor is hospitalized and insists on making love to one of his wives in his hospital bed, assisted by several others. Better for academics and scholars than the average reader, this book is nonetheless accessible to those willing to look. Holden includes many vivid photographs of the sheiks posing with awkward executives and oil prospectors. [/quote]