Crosswinds: The Way of Saudi Arabia

Beginning in 1937, when a young Minnesota-born mining engineer by the name of Thomas Barger first arrived in Arabia (the first Westerner to do so), that country has been somewhat of a mystery to America. In Crosswinds: The Way of Saudi Arabia, Fouad Ajami presents a firsthand look at the political culture in Saudi Arabia and its conduct and influence in foreign lands, from the early 1990s to the present day. From the influence of Islam in public life to Saudi rulers’ attitudes toward the Bush and Obama administrations, the author fills a significant gap in our understanding of that country.

During the course of two decades, Ajami has gained access to Saudis from all walks of life. In these pages he reveals, largely in their own words, their true feelings on a broad range of subjects. He also draws from a new wave of Saudi literature, revealing works of fiction and biography that afford us a fresh view of the Saudi reality. In addition, he conveys the thoughts of the bloggers, with all their verve, irreverence, immediacy, providing a window into the world of the skeptics and the modernists in that land. Ajami doesn’t ask the sort of questions that have been the norm in the standard writing on Arabia: the sources of instability, the prospects of its rulers, or the problems of succession from one royal to another. Rather, he depicts the journey of that country during the past twenty-odd years, charting the “Saudi way” both at home and abroad.