Crosswinds: The Way of Saudi Arabia
“Since 2014, we have all missed the combination of historical context and elegant prose with which Fouad Ajami helped us understand the complexities of the Middle East. Now we receive the gift of this previously unpublished encore that shows readers the way to think about the region and develop policies that clear a path toward a better future for its long-suffering peoples while advancing American interests.”
“Crosswinds is a unique combination of research, reportage, and commentary leavened with deep cultural insights of Saudi society. Like a good wine, Fouad’s wise writing has aged beautifully over the past decade.”
“About a decade ago, the late Fouad Ajami wrote the prescient anatomy of Saudi Arabia, now published for the first time. With his characteristic wit and sense of irony and paradox, Ajami offers a personal tour of a high-tech nation that relegates women to the Middle Ages, and a staunch ally of the United States that supplied the vast majority of the 9/11 terrorists. Superbly written, impeccably researched, and enlivened by Ajami’s own wide travels in the Middle East and his encyclopedic knowledge of Arab history and literature, Crosswinds will become a mini-classic about one of the strangest societies in the world.”
“With his graceful prose and nuanced insights, Fouad Ajami provides a magisterial account of the dramatic encounter between religious faith and state power in Saudi Arabia. From the early alliance between monarchy and Wahhabism, through the challenges of Islamist violence, to the cultural changes in the twenty-first century—especially the changing status of women—Crosswinds traces a narrative that testifies to the author’s rich understanding of politics and intellectual history in the Kingdom and the wider Arab world as well.”