Making the Desert Modern
Americans, Arabs, and Oil on the Saudi Frontier, 1933-1973
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4157025 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mary Ann Hei (corresponding author), Mary Ann Heiss (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 840-841 |
| Publication date | 2016-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaw499 |
| OpenAlex | W2909515502 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
Making excellent use of a variety of public and private materials, Chad H. Parker's Making the Desert Modern dissects the operations of the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) during the four decades of its exclusive control of the Saudi oil industry. On one level, Aramco functioned like any private profit-driven entity, seeking from the start of its concession in 1933 to create the best possible environment for its operations. Among the challenges it faced along the way were the nature of Saudi society and, more specifically, the absolute power of the Saudi monarchy. Parker effectively demonstrates that because Aramco often constituted the first point of contact between Saudi rulers and the United States and because it ultimately eclipsed the U.S. government “as the principal American representative in Saudi Arabia,” it was much more than simply a private corporation (p. 7). It came to embody the United States, rising and falling over the four decades Parker discusses from a major transformative element of Saudi society to a victim of larger U.S. policy decisions in the Middle East and changing ideas about the proper locus for control of the developing world's resources. By 1973, the year that concludes Parker's study, progress toward what the Saudis termed “participation” was already at work, transferring control of Saudi oil from Aramco to the government and setting the kingdom on a path to controlling the course and character of its future development (p. 124
Business · Corporation · Economics · Economy · Frontier · Government (linguistics · Middle East · Petroleum industry · Political science · Engineering · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Socioeconomic Development in MENA
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,6 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |