false 2211931 7 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. 2217719 1 4 2008 The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century total:203|5:46|4:102|3:42|2:8|1:5| 203 785 589 70 4 2 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 04 09:41:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 01 14:04:15 -0700 2008 0 1 false false Thu Feb 05 09:57:02 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:57:02 -0800 2009 Most reviewers were extremely impressed by The Bin Ladens and found it much more than a supplement to the array of existing Osama biographies. They praised Coll's choice of the family as framing device, which allows him to explore a century's worth of geopolitical intrigue, economic forces, and cult...

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I gave a low rating to the book because the analysis was so shallow. Yes, the bin Ladens are rich...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 31 16:21:51 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 09:13:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 23 09:13:38 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 25 10:48:00 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Tue Jun 02 19:26:12 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 02 19:35:09 -0700 2009
Again Coll writes an amazing book. This time Coll tackles the subject of the patriarchal business empire of the Bin Ladens. You might have already heard of one of 50+ children by the name of Osama. Osama's life is the tip of the iceberg for family that is as well co...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 20 16:42:03 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 16:44:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun May 10 10:44:26 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 10:44:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jul 05 19:25:07 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 19:35:08 -0700 2009 I didn't read this one, but I did listen to it on CD. Coll does more work when he writes his books than anyone else I know of. I kept asking myself where he got all of his information. Another great thing about the book is that he hardly mentions Osama until the last 1/4 of the book. Mostl...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Mar 22 14:57:03 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 15:01:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jun 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 08:56:06 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 13 08:10:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jan 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 03 09:15:14 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 07 13:59:47 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 08 08:01:11 -0700 2008 Thu May 28 10:25:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jul 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 11 17:37:36 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 02 21:42:17 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed May 20 20:37:27 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 20:48:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 05 11:20:04 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 07 17:44:30 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 20 10:29:43 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 15:50:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Sep 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 18:07:25 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 18:10:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Fri Sep 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 02:35:19 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 13:21:04 -0700 2009
No. I just think this sucked. A recitation of names and dates and locations with almost no meat on ...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2211931