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| Counter-Narratives: History, Contemporary Society, and Politics in Saudi Arabia and Yemen | | | Author: | Madawi al-Rasheed (Editor) | | ISBN: | 1403963878 | | Format: | Handover | | Publish Date: | June, 2005 | | |  |  |  | | | | | | | Book Review | | | |
Review
"This volume is an important step in the effort to bring the study of the politics of the Arabian Peninsula into the mainstream of scholarship and to bring the full range of scholarly approaches to the study of the Peninsula. It breaks new ground on both empirical and interpretative levels."-- F. Gregory Gause, III, Director of the Middle East Studies Program, University of Vermont
"Counter-Narratives brings together some of the finest new scholarship on the Arabian Peninsula. The contributors offer a rich analysis of social identity, political belonging, and historical transformation in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The book illuminates the differing roles of imperial powers, local hierarchies, intellectual reformers, oil companies, and other actors in shaping the region's modern politics. Conventional images of a world of tribes, rulers, and oilmen give way to finely textured interpretations of one of the most critically important areas of the contemporary world."--Timothy Mitchell. Professor of Politics, New York University
Review
"This volume is an important step in the effort to bring the study of the politics of the Arabian Peninsula into the mainstream of scholarship and to bring the full range of scholarly approaches to the study of the Peninsula. It breaks new ground on both empirical and interpretative levels."-- F. Gregory Gause, III, Director of the Middle East Studies Program, University of Vermont
"Counter-Narratives brings together some of the finest new scholarship on the Arabian Peninsula. The contributors offer a rich analysis of social identity, political belonging, and historical transformation in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The book illuminates the differing roles of imperial powers, local hierarchies, intellectual reformers, oil companies, and other actors in shaping the region's modern politics. Conventional images of a world of tribes, rulers, and oilmen give way to finely textured interpretations of one of the most critically important areas of the contemporary world."--Timothy Mitchell. Professor of Politics, New York University
Book Description
Saudi Arabia and Yemen are two countries of crucial importance in the Middle East and yet our knowledge about them is highly limited, while typical ways of looking at the histories of these countries have impeded understanding. Counter-Narratives brings together a group of leading scholars of the Middle East using new theoretical and methodological approaches to cross-examine standard stories, whether as told by Westerners or by Saudis and Yemenis, and these are found wanting. The authors assess how grand historical narratives such as those produced by states and colonial powers are currently challenged by multiple historical actors, a process which generates alternative narratives about identity, the state and society.
From the Inside Flap
"This volume is an important step in the effort to bring the study of the politics of the Arabian Peninsula into the mainstream of scholarship and to bring the full range of scholarly approaches to the study of the Peninsula. It breaks new ground on both empirical and interpretative levels."-- F. Gregory Gause, III, Director of the Middle East Studies Program, University of Vermont
"Counter-Narratives brings together some of the finest new scholarship on the Arabian Peninsula. The contributors offer a rich analysis of social identity, political belonging, and historical transformation in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The book illuminates the differing roles of imperial powers, local hierarchies, intellectual reformers, oil companies, and other actors in shaping the region's modern politics. Conventional images of a world of tribes, rulers, and oilmen give way to finely textured interpretations of one of the most critically important areas of the contemporary world."--Timothy Mitchell. Professor of Politics, New York University
About the Author
Madawi Al-Rasheed is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at King's College, University of London.
Robert Vitalis is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
Counter-Narratives: History, Contemporary Society, and Politics in Saudi Arabia and Yemen FROM THE PUBLISHER Saudi Arabia and Yemen are two countries of crucial importance in the Middle East and yet our knowledge about them is highly limited. This is both because many primary sources have not been used and, of at least equal importance, because standard ways of looking at the histories of these countries have impeded investigation. Counter-Narratives brings together a group of leading scholars of the Middle East to cross-examine standard stories, whether as told by Westerners or by Saudis and Yemenis, and these are found wanting. The contributors challenge established academic wisdom on state-formation, history, and contemporary politics in light of new theoretical and methodological approaches. They assess how grand historical narratives, such as those produced by states and colonial powers, are currently challenged by multiple historical actors. This process generates alternative narratives about identity, the state, and society. Saudi Arabia was never the monolithic country commonly assumed, nor was Yemen as tribally fractured as generally believed. These reconsiderations of Saudi and Yemeni history shed new light on the evolution of the modern Middle East and the dynamics underlying apparent uniformity. New approaches are offered, new interpretations suggested, focusing on the contested efforts to use symbolic politics to generate legitimacy, stability, and silence dissent.
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