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The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
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List Price:
$35.00
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$7.00
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Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 953.8052
EAN: 9781594201646
ISBN: 1594201641
Label: Penguin Press HC, The
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 688
Publication Date: 2008-04-01
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Studio: Penguin Press HC, The
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Editorial Reviews:
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Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the national bestseller Ghost Wars, Steve Coll presents the story of the Bin Laden family’s rise to power and privilege, revealing new information to show how American influences changed the family and how one member’s rebellion changed America
The Bin Ladens rose from poverty to privilege; they loyally served the Saudi royal family for generations—and then one of their number changed history on September 11, 2001. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Coll tells the epic story of the rise of the Bin Laden family and of the wildly diverse lifestyles of the generation to which Osama bin Laden belongs, and against whom he rebelled. Starting with the family’s escape from famine at the beginning of the twentieth century through its jet-set era in America after the 1970s oil boom, and finally to the family’s attempts to recover from September 11, The Bin Ladens unearths extensive new material about the family and its relationship with the United States, and provides a richly revealing and emblematic narrative of our globally interconnected times.
To a much greater extent than has been previously understood, the Bin Laden family owned an impressive share of the America upon which Osama ultimately declared war—shopping centers, apartment complexes, luxury estates, privatized prisons in Massachusetts, corporate stocks, an airport, and much more. They financed Hollywood movies and negotiated over real estate with Donald Trump. They came to regard George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Prince Charles as friends of their family. And yet, as was true of the larger relationship between the Saudi and American governments, when tested by Osama’s violence, the family’s involvement in the United States proved to be narrow and brittle.
Among the many memorable figures that cross these pages is Osama’s older brother, Salem—a free-living, chainsmoking, guitar-strumming pilot, adventurer, and businessman who cavorted across America and Europe and once proposed marriage to four American and European girlfriends simultaneously, attempting to win a bet with the king of Saudi Arabia. Osama and Salem’s father, Mohamed bin Laden, is another force in the narrative—an illiterate bricklayer who created the family fortune through perspicacity and wit, until his sudden death in an airplane crash in 1967, an accident caused by an error by his American pilot.
At the story’s heart lies an immigrant family’s attempt to adapt simultaneously to Saudi Arabia’s puritanism and America’s myriad temptations. The family generation to which Osama belonged—twenty-five brothers and twenty-nine sisters—had to cope with intense change. Most of them were born into a poor society where religion dominated public life. Yet by the time they became young adults, these Bin Ladens found themselves bombarded by Western-influenced ideas about individual choice, by gleaming new shopping malls and international fashion brands, by Hollywood movies and changing sexual mores—a dizzying world that was theirs for the taking, because they each received annual dividends that started in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. How they navigated these demands is an authentic, humanizing story of Saudi Arabia, America, and the sources of attraction and repulsion still present in the countries’ awkward embrace.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Book by Bin Laden's Mistresss Is Better
Comment: THE BIN LADENS
STEVE COLL
I give this book 4 stars but I have to say that the book
by Osama Bin laden's mistress Kola Boof was much more insightful,
better written and frankly much more exciting to read.
People have attacked her and "some" tried to claim her story
wasn't true, but I dare anybody to read her book and then claim
that she's just making up stories. She NAMED NAMES all through
her book and it's full of information including about the U.S.
Government that only someone telling the truth would have access
to. Her autobiography "Diary of a Lost Girl" is not only one of
the best memoirs I've ever read. It's also the best book I've
read so far on my new KINDLE e-reader.
You want to read a great book that's worth the money, get "Diary
of a Lost Girl" by Kola Boof and then see a side of Bin laden that
nobody's talking about.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amazing.
Comment: This is a must read for humans. Guess what? The bin Laden clan is not so different from any other family--they've got personalities that span the spectrum. Osama's father had 54 children and died in a plane crash. Daddy was an ambitious, clever, can-do sort of man. A charismatic opportunist, and a capitalist. He built a company up from nothing and, by Islamic law, his fortune and business were passed on to his children. Osama got his share. He was an only child from a Syrian wife. He was a quiet lad and found his way educated by religious extremists ... and he took to it--fundamentalist religion. The rest of the fam took to the good life that money could buy--oil money mostly-- passed on from the King of Saudi Arabia for construction projects. The family disowned Osama and now they are making money hand over foot. I think Osama will go down in history as somewhat of a hero, a sort of Robin Hood, Butch Cassidy type. Bush? History won't be kind to him - he's the one with the anti-social personality. The bin Ladens don't exhibit great intellect, they're really quite unexceptional, except for Osama, who had the rare courage of convictions ... religious fanaticism.
It's been seven years now - bin Laden's still a free man, Bush is being retired to his ranch - there are two wars still going on, and the stock market is back to "ground zero." Amazing.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amaze your friends on how much you know about the Bin Ladens!
Comment: I started reading this book mainly because the author is a pulz prize winner. I started it back in April. Mind you I am a slow reader but this is one that I can't put down. I remember after 9/11 hearing that the Bin Laden family had been flown out the next day or so by Bush. But I didn't know anything about them. Except they were allowed to fly but I was stuck in Essen Germany (one of the pilots has lived there w/ his girlfriend). This book is drenched in so much information that Steve gathered. I cannot imagine how hard or frustrating it must have been to get people there to talk. I have been taking my time and absorbing it (and even highlighting names...like James Baker). I had no idea and I don't think most American's how intertwined the Bin Laden family is with the U.S. They own so many properties all over the country. Even in the small city I live in now and the city I just moved from. It was also interesting to read about the Gulf War since I am a vet that was in during the gulf war. I remember that the king of Saudi told Bush he wanted to give every service member a solid gold metal. Every one of us. We were soooo excited. Bush said no. So nice of him. I mean my younger brother was on foodstamps while he was an e-3 in the Navy and I was barely clearing 12 grand as an e4. Nah that couldn't have come in handy. It is also interesting to see that money from the U.S. came through CIA to one of the main operatives there that passed on money to Obama and he never knew we gave him money. This was during the Afgan war. I could go on and on but JUST BUY IT!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Bin Ladins: The Rise to Power
Comment: This book provides a glamorous insight into the life of the Bin Laden family from the early beginning. Details within this book might seem over exaggerated but most likely very real. A dazzling narrative of high stakes business/borderline politics that brought about the most powerful family in the Middle East.
This book brings you on a journey across many continents leaving a dizzying trail of foot prints. A journey made possible by Oil, Construction, fortune and pure ambition.
This is a long book, but will remain in your hands until the last page.
A second addition would be appreciated to bridge current events to where this book left off.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An invaluable guide
Comment: Steve Coll's THE BIN LADENS receives Erik Singer's smooth voice and Broadway experience as it tells of the rise of the Bin Laden family and the oil fortune which earned them a place in not just the Middle East, but in Western history as well. Concurrent with the family biography is a survey of global integration and interactions key to understanding world politics - and an invaluable guide.
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