Crossing the Kingdom ─ Portraits of Saudi Arabia

For many people, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia evokes images of deserts, camels, and oil, along with rich sheiks in white robes, oppressed women in black veils, and terrorists. But when Loring Danforth travelled through the country in 2011, he found a world much more complex and inspiring than he could have ever imagined.

With vivid descriptions and moving personal narratives, Danforth takes us across the kingdom from the headquarters of Saudi Aramco, the country’s national oil company, on the Persian Gulf to the centuries-old city of Jeddah on the Red Sea coast. He presents detailed portraits of a young woman jailed for protesting the ban on women driving, a Sufi scholar encouraging Muslims and Christians to struggle together with love to know God, and an artist citing the Qur’an and using metal gears and chains to celebrate the diversity of the pilgrims who come to Mecca.

Loring M. Danforth is Professor of Anthropology at Bates College. He is the author ofThe Death Rituals of Rural Greece, Firewalking and Religious Healing, The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World,and Children of the Greek Civil War: Refugees and the Politics of Memory.