Blood and Oil, Bradley Hope
Blood and Oil, Bradley Hope
2 Rating(s)
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Blood and Oil
Mohammed bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power

Author: Bradley Hope, Justin Scheck

Narrator: Peter Ganim

Unabridged: 12 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/01/2020

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

From award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters comes a revelatory look at the inner workings of the world's most powerful royal family, and how the struggle for succession produced Saudi Arabia's charismatic but ruthless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS.​ 35-year-old Mohammed bin Salman's sudden rise stunned the world. Political and business leaders such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair and WME chairman Ari Emanuel flew out to meet with the crown prince and came away convinced that his desire to reform the kingdom was sincere. He spoke passionately about bringing women into the workforce and toning down Saudi Arabia's restrictive Islamic law. He lifted the ban on women driving and explored investments in Silicon Valley.But MBS began to betray an erratic interior beneath the polish laid on by scores of consultants and public relations experts like McKinsey & Company. The allegations of his extreme brutality and excess began to slip out, including that he ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent by holding 300 people, including prominent members of the Saudi royal family, in the Ritz-Carlton hotel and elsewhere for months, he continued to exhibit his extreme wealth, including buying a $70 million chateau in Europe and one of the world's most expensive yachts. It seemed that he did not understand nor care about how the outside world would react to his displays of autocratic muscle—what mattered was the flex.Blood and Oil is a gripping work of investigative journalism about one of the world's most decisive and dangerous new leaders. Hope and Scheck show how MBS' precipitous rise coincided with the fraying of the simple bargain that had been at the head of US-Saudi relations for more than 80 years: oil, for military protection. Caught in his net are well-known US bankers, Hollywood figures, and politicians, all eager to help the charming and crafty crown prince.The Middle East is already a volatile region. Add to the mix an ambitious prince with extraordinary powers, hunger for lucre, a tight relationship with the White House through President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner, and an apparent willingness to break anything—and anyone—that gets in the way of his vision, and the stakes of his rise are bracing. If his bid fails, Saudi Arabia has the potential to become an unstable failed state and a magnet for Islamic extremists. And if his bid to transform his country succeeds, even in part, it will have reverberations around the world.Longlisted for the Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

Reviews

Goodreads review by Umaymah on November 02, 2020

Solid 5 stars. Because of this book I'm reading 1. Black Wave by Kim Ghattas 2. MBS by Ben Hubbard 3. The Killing in the Consulate by Jonathan Rugman, and 4. Vision or Mirage by David Tindell I'm ecstatic.......more

Goodreads review by Murtaza on August 11, 2022

Subscribe to my newsletter at: mazmhussain.substack.com Mohammed bin Salman, MBS, has become such a bête noire in the West that people have forgotten the uncomfortable fact that he remains genuinely popular among many of his own people. Part of this popularity can be attributed to a regime informatio......more

Goodreads review by Thomas Wright on July 22, 2020

A pacy read that unpacks the unlikely story of one of the world’s most enigmatic and ruthless leaders, who remains close to Kushner and others in the US administration. It’s also a lively primer on the history of Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf region. Highly recommended.......more

Goodreads review by Rohit on February 28, 2021

The cover of the book was superb and enticing enough to buy it. It chronicles the rise of Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. From a relative non-entity to being the de facto ruler of the Kindom of Saudi Arabia, the book narrates the rise to power of MBS in a country ruled by Al S......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on September 05, 2020

From the authors of Billion Dollar Whale comes another riveting account of the meteoritic rise of one of the world’s youngest and most powerful leaders. There are two points I admire the most about this book. First is the details. Much of what was described here were tiny, subtle, yet undeniably imp......more

Quotes

"Blood and Oil is the fascinating and highly entertaining tale of Mohammed bin Salman's rise to power. With fly-on-the-wall reporting and palace intrigue worthy of Machiavelli, it will keep you turning the pages at a fast clip until its tragic denouement. And more importantly, it will leave you with a deep and nuanced understanding of the Crown Prince's thinking and its implications for Saudi Arabia and the entire Middle East."
—John Carreyrou, author of Bad Blood

"This is as close to the truth, to the real story of the corruption, vulgarities, horrors, and lies of the Kingdom and its current despot as we are likely to get. It also can be read as a Shakespearean story of utter greed."—Seymour Hersh, author of Chain of Command

"Blood and Oil is the best book I've read about the Middle East. It gets deep into the most opaque place on earth, without a false note anywhere. Not to mention the book is a wonderfully readable page-turner, and indispensable if you want a glimpse of the future of Saudi Arabia and the world."—Robert Baer, author of See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil

"[Blood and Oil is] lively and well written, and it draws a sharp portrait of the man at its heart....Hope and Scheck have done a great deal of digging and have unearthed some eye-popping tales."—The New York Times Book Review

"Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck chronicle the truly incredible story of MBS's rise in the deep, multidimensional way that only experienced Wall Street Journal reporters can do. The book reads like a novel, but it also plays the critically important role of illuminating a real person who is going to shape our world in ways we would all be better for understanding."—Bethany McLean, author of Saudi America and co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room

"A crisp page-turner of a book teeming with telling detail...Blood and Oil is particularly good on the link-up between the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank....There is plenty more in Hope and Scheck's splendid book."—Financial Times

"An engrossing new book....Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck... deliver a vivid portrait of treachery and power grabs in the Saudi royal court, and attempt to uncover what drives some of the young royal's often reckless decision-making."—NPR.org

"Hope and Scheck confront us with the conundrum of a young man who is doing good by his Kingdom-brilliantly describing how the enigmatic Crown Prince is bringing progress to Arabia as we would see it in the West-while operating with ruthlessness and absolutism that make the stomach curl. Blood and Oil is compelling reading. We are challenged and enthralled on every page."—Robert Lacey, bestselling author of The Crown and Inside the Kingdom

"Explosive."—The Times (UK)

"Excellent."—Forbes

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