The Mirage

What This Book Covers

1. Prologue
2. Chapter One - Before the Kingdom
3. Chapter Two - The House of Saud
4. Chapter Three - Wahhabism
5. Chapter Four - The Conquest of the Peninsula
6. Chapter Five - The British Gambit
7. Chapter Six - Black Blood
8. Chapter Seven - Absolute Monarchy, Absolutely
9. Chapter Eight - The Two Holy Mosques
10. Chapter Nine - The American Deal
11. Chapter Ten - Modernization Theater
12. Chapter Eleven - The Royal Purge
13. Chapter Twelve - The Kingdom That Shouldn’t Exist
14. Chapter Thirteen - Long Live the Mirage

Excerpt

PROLOGUE THERE ARE NO rivers. Let’s start there. No water flows through this kingdom. No mountains feed its valleys. No green banks. No lakes. No life, really. Just heat. And dust. And silence. And yet — somehow — this is one of the most powerful countries on Earth. A desert with no democracy, no freedom of speech, no separation of powers, no ancient constitution, no modern parliament, no meaningful elections, and yet you bow to it every time you fill your tank. This place didn’t rise in the days of Pharaoh or Babylon. It wasn’t forged by ancient empires or great conquests. This is not Rome in the desert. It was born… yesterday. Barely a hundred years ago. Modern. Manufactured. Mechanical....