Archive Wars: The Politics of History in Saudi Arabia

by Rosie Bsheer

"This project examines how Saudi Arabian officials and economic elites used state archives, historical preservation, and urban redevelopment to consolidate power after the Gulf War. It shows how the Saudi regime attempted to shift the terrain of domestic opposition from the political to the historical and from the streets to institutions, transforming the nation's landscape into a revenue-generating asset"--

Genres: History, Middle East, Nonfiction, Politics, Islam, Academic

384 pages, Hardcover

Published August 25, 2020

About the author

Rosie Bsheer is a historian of the modern Middle East and Assistant Professor of History at Harvard University. Her teaching and research interests center on Arab intellectual and social movements, petro-capitalism and state formation, and the production of historical knowledge and commemorative spaces.

Reviews

[Vance Miguel Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly well written and synthesized. A must read for anyone wanting to be well versed in global history outside of the West.

[Basil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rarely do I read an academic text under the generic field of “Middle East Studies” written this bravely, and with so much political urgency. Theoretically sophisticated and historiographically dense, this book manages to tackle a sweeping variety of social, historical, political and economic concerns around Saudi Arabia (and the region as a whole) simply by looking at the question of archive formation.

[Mesut Bostancı · Rating 5 out of 5]

this really is a remarkable book. Remarkable for the exact reasons that the book so painstakingly explains: Saudi Arabia is a country whose history has been relentlessly battered for a century by the forces of absolutist epistemicide and know-nothing incompetence. I have read few books that do a better job justifying their own project as historiography/intellectual history by showing how deeply political and high the stakes of history writing are.

[Ellie T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

really really liked it!! i loved chapters 2 & 3 on archiving... the darah is so interesting to me, it really makes me want to travel to saudi arabia but who knows... i wish there were more personal accounts and maybe some more explanations of the 'why' mechanisms but overall i felt really informed!!!

[Ata · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most readable thing I've ever read recently.