Monthly Review
06-08-2011, 01:43 AM
Toby Craig Jones's book Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia deals with issues of progress, development, the role of science in the creation of a state, and also how the environment contributed to the articulation of Saudi identity. Though oil and water are in the title, it is not a book about oil or water. This book explores the role of natural resources in the articulation of the relationship between a central government and a resource-rich peripheral area -- in this case, al-Hasa, the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and a historical center of oil wealth and agriculture.
More... (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/penziner070611.html)
More... (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/penziner070611.html)