No one else I know of has been able to bring such a broad perspective to bear on the rise of bin Laden; the CIA itself would be hard put to beat his grasp of global events Coll's book is deeply satisfying because.., it's an inside account written by an outsider, the most objective history I have read of the many failures of the CIA and the US government in the region.

The rise and rise of the Bin Laden family is one of the great stories of the twentieth century; its repercussions have already deeply marked the twenty-first. Until now,however, it is a story that has never been fully told, as the Bin Ladens have successfully fended off attempts to understand the family circles from which Osama sprang.In this the family has been abetted by the kingdom it calls home, Saudi Arabia, one of the most closed societies on earth.

Steve Coll's The Bin Ladens is the groundbreaking history of a family and its fortune. It chronicles a young illiterate Yemeni bricklayer, Mohamed Bin Laden, who went to the new, oil-rich country of Saudi Arabia and quickly became a vital figure in its development,building great mosques and highways and making himself and many of his children millionaires. It is also a story of the Saudi royal family, whom the Bin Ladens served loyally and without whose capricious favor they would have been nothing. And it is a story of tensions and contradictions in a country founded on extreme religious purity, which then became awash in oil money and dazzled by the temptations of the West.In only two generations the Bin Ladens moved from a famine-stricken desert canyon to luxury jets, yachts, and private compounds around the world, even going into business with Hollywood celebrities. These religious and cultural gyrations resulted in everything from enthusiasm for America--exemplified by Osama's free-living pilot brother Salem--to an overwhelming determination to destroy it.

The Bin Ladens is a meticulously researched,colorful, shocking, entertaining, and disturbing narrative of global integration and its limitations. It encapsulates the unsettling contradictions of globalization in the story of a single family who has used money, mobility,and technology to dramatically varied ends.

AUTHOR'S NOTE  xI

FAMILY TREE  XlII

A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION  XV

Prologue: "We All Worship the Same God"

October 1984 to February 1985

  PART ONE: PATRIARCHS

      1900 to September 1967

1. In Exile 19

2. The Royal Garage 32

3. Silent Partners 46

4. The Glory of His Reign 62

5. For Jerusalem 80

6. The Backlash 93

7. AModernMan 103

8. Crosswind 112

       PART TWO:

  SONS AND DAUGHTERS

    September 1967 to May 1988

9. The Guardians 123

10. Young Osama 137

11. Realm of Conspiracy 153

12. The Rising Son 163

13. Discovering America 181

14. The Convert's Zeal 198

15. Wired 213

16. The Amusement Park z32

17. In the King's Service 245

18. Anxiety Disorder 264

19. The Grinder 27s

20. The Arms Bazaar z84

21. Off the Books 297

22. The Proposal 3o6

23. Kitty Hawk Field of Dreams 318

PART THREE: THE GLOBAL FAMILY

         June 1988 to September 2001

24. Writer-Director-Producer 329

25. Lump Sums 344

26. America in Motion 356

27. The Swiss Accounts 368

28. A Rolls-Royce in the Rain 384

29. The Construction of Exile 397

30. Hedge Funds 418

31. A Trojan Desk 432

32. The Aesthetics of Worship 438

33. One Phone, One World 453

34. Lawyers, Guns, and Money 472

35. Bin Laden Island 497

   PART FOUR: LEGACIES

    September 2OOl tO September 2007

36. The Name 515

37. Public Relations 536

38. Brands 546

39. So What? 552

4o. In Exile 562

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  577

NOTES  580

BIBLIOGRAPHY 637

INDEX 647