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OIL, GOD, AND GOLD

THE STORY OF ARAMCO AND THE SAUDI KINGS

The tale of Aramco—a joint venture owned by Standard Oil of California, Exxon, Texaco, and Mobil in profitable symbiosis with Saudi potentates—and its eventual life as an Arabian entity is one to rival many an adventure novel. Brown (Treason in the Blood: H. St. John Philby, Kim Philby, and the Spy Case of the Century, 1994) has produced a text populated with Islamic fundamentalists and their blue-eyed infidel friends who developed and exploited, from beneath the desert sands, the world’s greatest hydrocarbon reserves. Aramco, an integral piece of the Middle East jigsaw puzzle for two generations, was a colossal consortium continuously siphoning fabulous cash flows from what Brown calls “the Empty Quarter of Araby.” Aramco existed at the whim of Ibn Saud and the kings who followed him. Sometimes the relationship was difficult, but during WWII oil still flowed. And during the Cold War, Aramco was excused from federal investigation of profiteering. Extra profits also came at the expense of the firm’s hosts; oil was sold, for example, to Aramco’s affiliates to keep royalties down. Naturally, the firm regularly attempted to influence the American government to reduce support for Israel. When it came to pitting fixed public policy against petrodollars, who would blame Aramco for choosing the latter? The author doesn’t (though he notes the general failure to “persuade the Washington polity that U.S. Middle East policy endangered the Aramco concession”). Aramco, with its American owners, finally “became the instrument of a foreign power, Saudi Arabia,” Brown concedes. His business narrative is marked by tales of bribery, deceit, and intrigue. Withal, life as an “Aramcon,” as a Westerner in the corporate desert village, was privileged while it lasted. Finally, the Saudis took control and the idyll was over. After producing “a trillion or two” Aramco was “now at one with Nineveh and Tyre.” Here’s Big Oil geopolitics paired with high drama, adventure, and bloodshed, with kidnapping, murder, and Holy War. An interesting story, indeed.

Pub Date: Feb. 26, 1999

ISBN: 0-395-59220-8

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999

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HOW DEMOCRACIES DIE

The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics,...

A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump’s ascent and the fall of other democracies.

Following the last presidential election, Levitsky (Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America, 2003, etc.) and Ziblatt (Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, 2017, etc.), both professors of government at Harvard, wrote an op-ed column titled, “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy?” The answer here is a resounding yes, though, as in that column, the authors underscore their belief that the crisis extends well beyond the power won by an outsider whom they consider a demagogue and a liar. “Donald Trump may have accelerated the process, but he didn’t cause it,” they write of the politics-as-warfare mentality. “The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization—one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture.” The authors fault the Republican establishment for failing to stand up to Trump, even if that meant electing his opponent, and they seem almost wistfully nostalgic for the days when power brokers in smoke-filled rooms kept candidacies restricted to a club whose members knew how to play by the rules. Those supporting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders might take as much issue with their prescriptions as Trump followers will. However, the comparisons they draw to how democratic populism paved the way toward tyranny in Peru, Venezuela, Chile, and elsewhere are chilling. Among the warning signs they highlight are the Republican Senate’s refusal to consider Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee as well as Trump’s demonization of political opponents, minorities, and the media. As disturbing as they find the dismantling of Democratic safeguards, Levitsky and Ziblatt suggest that “a broad opposition coalition would have important benefits,” though such a coalition would strike some as a move to the center, a return to politics as usual, and even a pragmatic betrayal of principles.

The value of this book is the context it provides, in a style aimed at a concerned citizenry rather than fellow academics, rather than in the consensus it is not likely to build.

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-5247-6293-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017

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HOW TO FIGHT ANTI-SEMITISM

A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.

Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.

While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.

A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019

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