Though this is certainly not a history book, Jones manages to get some of the basics of Saudi history into the narrative, and the snippets of history he shares contribute to the larger story. Mainly to provide some historical background - not only to the particular incident of the seizure and occupation of the Grand Mosque in Makkah (Mecca), but also to the gradual rise of Wahabi extremism in Saudi Arabia - he describes how the House of Saud formed a loose alliance in the 1800s with Abdul Wahab. Abdul Aziz, in the early 1900s, once again made use of the latest incarnation of the Wahabites - the Ikhwan, the Brotherhood - to unify much of the Arabian Peninsula and establish the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The same region of the Kingdom from which the leader of the Mosque occupation hailed produced several of the people who participated in the 9/11 attacks.
The descriptions of daily life at the hospital and around town, and of trips to numerous places, combined with the maps in the appendix, provide the reader a basic sense of familiarity with the country. Unfortunately, the author didn't include a lot of pictures. (To see some photographs of the various places described in the book, both around town and in the desert, go to the Taza Press website.)
Unlike many of the other expats working at the hospital, Jones and his family did not take advantage of the many buffers it provided or remain isolated and insulated from the larger society: "the hospital was a mini-city, and like the US Army before, assumed the function of caring for many of the social needs of its employees and their families," providing completely furnished and equipped housing, its own power plant, water treatment plant, security and fire departments, subsidized food and recreation facilities, post office and telephone exchange, as well as transportation and travel departments. He and his family and a few other expats got out and explored the country, especially the desert, meeting numerous Saudis in the city and on the road.
Getting out and involved in various activities around the country, including forming warm and not-so-warm relationships with various Saudis, gave Jones more insight into the social and cultural mechanisms of change, including the impact of Western (particularly American) attitudes towards the Saudi people, culture and religion. Jones observes how the hospital, during its early years when it was entirely administered by Americans, rendered the Saudis in whose country it operated largely invisible to the staff. In the very heart of one of the most socially conservative countries, the Saudis "were at the very periphery of our existence. The very poor Saudis drove the hospital buses and the local taxis. More affluent Saudis were shopkeepers... A small group of Saudis worked at the hospital in administration posts but were kept at the extreme edges of power... like so much cardamom sprinkled in the coffee, an exotic presence sufficient to suggest that one was not actually in a hospital in Peoria."
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