Counter-Narratives: History, Contemporary Society, and Politics in Saudi Arabia and Yemen

Saudi Arabia and Yemen are two countries of crucial importance in the Middle East and yet our knowledge about them is highly limited. This is both because many primary sources have not been used and, of at least equal importance, because standard ways of looking at the histories of these countries have impeded investigation. Counter-Narratives brings together a group of leading scholars of the Middle East to cross-examine standard stories, whether as told by Westerners or by Saudis and Yemenis, and these are found wanting. The contributors challenge established academic wisdom on state-formation, history, and contemporary politics in light of new theoretical and methodological approaches. They assess how grand historical narratives, such as those produced by states and colonial powers, are currently challenged by multiple historical actors. This process generates alternative narratives about identity, the state, and society. Saudi Arabia was never the monolithic country commonly assumed, nor was Yemen as tribally fractured as generally believed. These reconsiderations of Saudi and Yemeni history shed new light on the evolution of the modern Middle East and the dynamics underlying apparent uniformity. New approaches are offered, new interpretations suggested, focusing on the contested efforts to use symbolic politics to generate legitimacy, stability, and silence dissent.