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Robert Vitalis - America´s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier - 9780804754460 - V9780804754460
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America´s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier

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Description for America´s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier Hardback. Examination of U.S.-Saudi relations, the development of the oil frontier, and the enduring legacy of racial segregation at the Aramco camps. Series: Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures. Num Pages: 392 pages, 7 illustrations, 1 map. BIC Classification: 1FBXS; 1KBB; JPS; KNBP. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 5817 x 3887 x 29. Weight in Grams: 649.

America's Kingdom debunks the many myths that now surround the United States's "special relationship" with Saudi Arabia, or what is less reverently known as "the deal": oil for security. Taking aim at the long-held belief that the Arabian American Oil Company, ARAMCO, made miracles happen in the desert, Robert Vitalis shows that nothing could be further from the truth. What is true is that oil led the U.S. government to follow the company to the kingdom. Eisenhower agreed to train Ibn Sa'ud's army, Kennedy sent jets to defend the kingdom, and Lyndon Johnson sold it missiles. Oil and ARAMCO quickly ... Read more

Beginning with the establishment of a Jim Crow system in the Dhahran oil camps in the 1930s, the book goes on to examine the period of unrest in the 1950s and 1960s when workers challenged the racial hierarchy of the ARAMCO camps while a small cadre of progressive Saudis challenged the hierarchy of the international oil market. The defeat of these groups led to the consolidation of America's Kingdom under the House of Fahd, the royal faction that still rules today.

This is a gripping story that covers more than seventy years, three continents, and an engrossing cast of characters. Informed by first hand accounts from ARAMCO employees and top U.S. government officials, this book offers the true story of the events on the Saudi oil fields. After America's Kingdom, mythmakers will have to work harder on their tales about ARAMCO being magical, honorable, selfless, and enlightened.

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Product Details

Format
Hardback
Publication date
2006
Publisher
Stanford University Press United States
Number of pages
392
Condition
New
Series
Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures
Number of Pages
392
Place of Publication
Palo Alto, United States
ISBN
9780804754460
SKU
V9780804754460
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-15

About Robert Vitalis
Robert Vitalis is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is author of When Capitalists Collide: Business Conflict and the End of Empire in Egypt (1995) and co-editor of Counter-Narratives: History, Contemporary Society, and Politics in Saudi Arabia and Yemen (2004).

Reviews for America´s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier
"America's Kingdom comes as a pleasant surprise... a scholarly and readable book on the interaction between Saudi society and Aramco, the US oil giant that had its beginnings when the Saudi government granted its first concessions to Standard Oil of California in 1933. Combining history with political anthropology, Vitalis sheds a bright light on the origins and less savory aspects ... Read more

Goodreads reviews for America´s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier


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