Irvine Anderson carefully reconstructs the years between 1933 and 1950 and provides a case study of the evolution of U.S. foreign oil policy and of the complex relationships between the U.S. government and the business world. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Played out against a background of war and the turmoil of an ancient culture thrust abruptly into the twentieth century, the struggle to control the flow of Saudi oil was won by the United States, which emerged as the dominant Western power in the Middle East."--BOOK JACKET.

Now newly updated, America's Kingdom debunks the many myths that now surround the United States's special relationship with Saudi Arabia, also known as "the deal": oil for security. Exploding the long-established myth that the Arabian American Oil Company, Aramco, made miracles happen in the desert, Robert Vitalis shows how oil led the US government to follow the company to the kingdom, and how oil and Aramco quickly became America's largest single overseas private enterprise. From the establishment in the 1930s of a Jim Crow system in the Dhahran oil camps, to the consolidation of America's Kingdom under the House of Fahd, the royal faction that still rules today, this is a meticulously researched account of Aramco as a microcosm of the colonial order.

No longer simply a handbook for Aramco employees, this volume provides background information on Islam, the Arab world, and the oil industry.

From the opening of a U.S. consulate in Dhahran in 1944 through the conclusion of his ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia in 1965, Parker T. Hart played a critical part in building the U.S.-Saudi security relationship, a key aspect of U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East to this day. Drawing on his personal involvement in events as well as the documentary record, Hart provides fresh insights into early Saudi-U.S. diplomatic relations - from, Franklin D. Roosevelt through Lyndon B. Johnson - and details the construction of the Dhahran airfield, King Faisal's consolidation of the Saudi nation, and U.S./U.N. intervention to halt Saudi-Egyptian hostilities sparked by the revolutionary war, in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and the United States also offers perspectives on politically sensitive current issues, such as U.S. military bases in the Middle East and the security of the vast Saudi oil reserves.

Includes information on before the oil era, Architecture of ʼAsir and Tihamah, handicrafts, The Bedouin, Neolithic tools, who is an Arab, frankincense, the Tayma stone, The prayer rug, the five pillars of Islam, the Hijri calendar and the two festivals, how Islamic science reached Europe, Arabic numerals, Arabic language, Arabic literature, the development of Islamic law, tribal settlers and nomads, rood, dress, money, music, Saudi women today, climate, falconry, crude oil, gasoline, the search for oil and gas, geology of Arabia, environmental accountability, Saudi Arabia and world energy, Makkah (Mecca), etc.

Relying on a rich cache of previously classified notes, transcripts, cables, policy briefs, and memoranda, Andrew Cooper explains how oil drove, even corrupted, American foreign policy during a time when Cold War imperatives still applied, and tells why in the 1970s the U.S. switched its Middle East allegiance from the Shah of Iran to the Saudi royal family. Amid the oil shocks of the early 1970s, there was one man the U.S. could rely on: the Shah of Iran. The Shah sold us oil; we sold him weapons. But the U.S. and other industrialized economies could not tolerate repeated annual double digit increases in oil prices. During the 1976 election campaign, President Gerald Ford decided that he had to find a country that would break the OPEC monopoly and sell the U.S. oil more cheaply. On the advice of Treasury Secretary William Simon -- and against the advice of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger -- Ford made a deal to sell advanced weaponry to the Saudis in exchange for a more moderate price hike in oil. The Shah's economy was destabilized, and disaffected elements mobilized to overthrow him. The U.S. had embarked on a long relationship with the autocratic Saudi kingdom that continues to this day.