At the dawn of the 21st century, Saudi Arabia was a wealthy and powerful country with influence in the West and throughout the Muslim world, yet it remained a closed society shrouded in mystery. Its 20th-century history is dominated by the story of state formation and nation-building. With historical and anthropological skill, Madawi Al-Rasheed traces the Kingdom's extraordinary history from the era of the Emirates in the 19th century to the Gulf War of 1991, and into the more recent centennial celebrations of unification. She blends chronology with analysis, and personal experience with oral histories, drawing on a range of local and international documents.