Synopses & Reviews
"A thorough analysis of the country and of America's relationship with it. . . . Useful for readers seeking to understand the complexities of Saudi society and U.S. interests."
Library Journal
"Many illuminating essays."
The Economist
"A welcome and breathtaking burst of new knowledge. There is no volume today that contains so much useful material."
Joshua Teitelbaum, author of The Rise and Fall of the Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia
"Aarts and Nonneman have organized the essays to complement one another in tone and content and to highlight both empirical and theoretical approaches."
Library Journal
"This highly informative edited volume goes a long way in offering a much-needed crudite and scholarly analysis of contemporary Saudi Arabia."
Highly recommended, CHOICE
"Saudi Arabia in the Balance is far and away the best book on the politics of contemporary Saudi Arabia. The contributors are serious, long-time students of the country; many have spent considerable time there. They engage the issues roiling Saudi politics with depth, sophistication and an attention to detail that is commendable. They represent a spectrum of views on the country, but grind no ideological axes. In all, it is a perfect antidote to the rash of shallow and sensationalist books on Saudi Arabia in recent years."F. Gregory Gause, author of Oil Monarchies: Domestic and Security Challenges in the Arab Gulf States.
"This book achieves its own weighty balance...a successful venture in international scholarship and a coherent book."
Foreign Affairs
"Any educated reader, and to a greater extent policy analyst, will find this volume precious in understanding a country that is too often either criticized a priori or praised sycophantically."
Matteo Legrenzi, Cranfield University, UK
Saudi Arabia in the Balance brings together today's leading scholars in the field to investigate the domestic, regional, and international affairs of a Kingdom whose policies have so far eluded the outside world. With the passing of King Fahd and the installation of King Abdullah, a contemporary understanding of Saudi Arabia is essential as the Kingdom enters a new era of leadership and particularly when many Saudis themselves are increasingly debating, and actively shaping, the future direction of domestic and foreign affairs.
Each of the essays, framed in the aftermath of 9/11 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, offers a systematic perspective into the country's political and economic realities as well as the tension between its regional and global roles. Important topics covered include U.S. and Saudi relations; Saudi oil policy; the Islamist threat to the monarchy regime; educational opportunities; the domestic rise of liberal opposition; economic reform; the role of the royal family; and the country's foreign relations in a changing international world.
Contributors: Paul Aarts, Madawi Al-Rasheed, Rachel Bronson, Iris Glosemeyer, Steffen Hertog, Yossi Kostiner, Stéphane Lacroix, Giacomo Luciani, Monica Malik, Roel Meijer, Tim Niblock, Gerd Nonneman, Michaela Prokop, Abdulaziz Sager, Guido Steinberg
Review
“A thorough analysis of the country and of America's relationship with it. . . . Useful for readers seeking to understand the complexities of Saudi society and U.S. interests.”
“Serves best as a source of information and some insight into the tactical questions facing the Saudi and U.S. ruling classes.”
“Many illuminating essays.”
“A welcome and breathtaking burst of new knowledge. There is no volume today that contains so much useful material.”
“Aarts and Nonneman have organized the essays to complement one another in tone and content and to highlight both empirical and theoretical approaches.”
Review
"Though the irony of his title refuses the explanatory totalization that would follow from taking it straight, Paul Morrison's dazzlingly ferocious new book explains beyond all doubt why those of us familiar with his wide-ranging work recognize him as the most profoundly and provocatively Wildean critic of his generation."-Lee Edelman,Tufts University
Review
"Why is it that our culture's explanation for everything is homosexuality? In this judiciously argued and brilliantly conceived study, Morrison offers a compelling explanation of his own. The specter of "the homosexual" provides the perfect political scapegoat for acts of injustice that are, in truth, systemic and social in nature. If there is a culprit in contemporary scientific and cultural explanations of modern villainy, it is the predilection of critics themselves to find latent homosexuality here, there, and everywhere. A shrewd, quick-witted, and penetrating book."-Diana Fuss,Princeton University
Review
"Paul Morrison brings a refreshing and unique style to the practice of queer theory. With his extravagant attitude, epigrammatic wit, and political drive, he unsettles the complacencies of heterosexual certainty and gay self-congratulation alike, while forcing us to confront the breadth and depth of homophobia in our culture. Whether he is exploding liberal pieties or exhorting us not to allow sex to degenerate into love, Morrison startles and instructs. A challenging and necessary book."-David M. Halperin,University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Review
“A welcome and breathtaking burst of new knowledge. There is no volume today that contains so much useful material.”
-Joshua Teitelbaum,author of The Rise and Fall of the Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia
Review
“Aarts and Nonneman have organized the essays to complement one another in tone and content and to highlight both empirical and theoretical approaches.”
-Library Journal,
Synopsis
Saudi Arabia in the Balance brings together todays leading scholars in the field to investigate the domestic, regional, and international affairs of a Kingdom whose policies have so far eluded the outside world. With the passing of King Fahd and the installation of King Abdullah, a contemporary understanding of Saudi Arabia is essential as the Kingdom enters a new era of leadership and particularly when many Saudis themselves are increasingly debating, and actively shaping, the future direction of domestic and foreign affairs.
Each of the essays, framed in the aftermath of 9/11 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, offers a systematic perspective into the countrys political and economic realities as well as the tension between its regional and global roles. Important topics covered include U.S. and Saudi relations; Saudi oil policy; the Islamist threat to the monarchy regime; educational opportunities; the domestic rise of liberal opposition; economic reform; the role of the royal family; and the country's foreign relations in a changing international world.
Contributors: Paul Aarts, Madawi Al-Rasheed, Rachel Bronson, Iris Glosemeyer, Steffen Hertog, Yossi Kostiner, Stéphane Lacroix, Giacomo Luciani, Monica Malik, Roel Meijer, Tim Niblock, Gerd Nonneman, Michaela Prokop, Abdulaziz Sager, Guido Steinberg
Synopsis
"The claim 'I'm straight' is the psychosexual analogue of 'The check is in the mail': if you need to say it, your credit or creditability is already in doubt." So begins Paul Morrison's dazzling polemic, which takes as its point of departure Foucault's famous remark that sex is "the explanation for everything."
Combining psychoanalytic, literary, and queer theory, The Explanation for Everything seeks to account for the explanatory power attributed to homosexuality, and its relationship to compulsory heterosexuality. In the process, Morrison presents a scathing indictment of psychoanalysis and its impact on the study of sexuality. In bold but graceful leaps, Morrison applies his critique to a diversity of examples: subjectivity in Oscar Wilde, the cultural construction and reception of AIDS, the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, the practice of bodybuilding, and the contemporary reception of the sexual politics of fascism.
Analytical, witty and astute, The Explanation for Everything will challenge and amuse, establishing Paul Morrison as one of our most exciting cultural critics.
About the Author
Paul Morrison is an associate Professor of English at Brandeis University. He is the author of The Poetics of Fascism: Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Paul de Man>.