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    The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
    Unavailable
    The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
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    The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
    Audiobook (abridged)10 hours

    The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century

    Written by Steve Coll

    Narrated by Erik Singer

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 1, 2008
    ISBN9781429592178
    Unavailable
    The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century
    Author

    Steve Coll

    Steve Coll is a staff writer at the New Yorker, the dean of the Columbia Journalism School, and the bestselling author of seven books. Previously he served as president of the New America Foundation and worked for two decades at the Washington Post, where he won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for a four-part series on the Securities and Exchange Commission during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. The award-winning series became the basis for Eagle on the Street (1991), coauthored with David A. Vise. Coll’s other books include New York Times Notable Book The Deal of the Century (1998); Ghost Wars (2004), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction; The Bin Ladens (2009), winner of the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction; and Private Empire (2012), winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.  

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    Reviews for The Bin Ladens

    4.5/5

    12 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      What a great history lesson about Saudi Arabia and the bin Laden family. I learned so much from this book!
    • 4/5
      A must read to place Osama in context. Interesting photographs of the clan, showing relationships among the extended family members.
    • 4/5
      A fascinating book which gives background about the vast Bin Laden family. It gives incredible detail about the family structure and dynamics, in particular the difficulty managing the Western influence on a Muslim family. What it does not do is tell you what made Osama the man he is now. The focus is clearly the Bin Laden family, it addresses Osama in that context. Excellent non-fiction read.
    • 4/5
      Steve Coll's books are reliably well-written, well-researched, and both deep and broad. Subject matter that could be incomprehensible, with so many unfamiliar dates, locations, names and events, is made clear through his engaging language and his ability to focus the reader in on a narrative.I was expecting a book a bit more upon the lines of Ghost Wars, a description of history and policy leading towards September 11th, and instead I found something more like a family biography. It was a surprise, but a welcome one. If I'd ever been asked if I thought I should know about Mohamed, Abdullah (and Abdullah and Abdullah), Salem, Ghalib, Khaled, Yeslam, Bakr and Randa bin Laden, I would have said no. Yet learning about all these individuals has been fascinating.It is easy to stereotype individuals from unfamiliar cultures, to lump all Saudi Arabians or Yemenis or Afghanis into one large box, but the diversity of the bin Laden family shows that the confluence of religion, technology, politics and geography can result in stunningly different personalities, attitudes and beliefs even in the members of a single family.Valuable reading and a fascinating look into another culture. I've only just finished it (I personally tend to read quickly and then digest at leisure), and believe it will be worth going back to this book repeatedly for deeper understanding.
    • 5/5
      The Bin Ladins are an intriguing family even aside from Osama, and Steve Coll has written a fascinating account of their history. Mohammed Bin Laden, the Yemeni family patriarch, started his career as an illiterate bricklayer, whose hard work and dedication enabled him to rise quickly in the construction field. At age 22, he was able to start his own business with his brother (whom he later bought out). Once he got in with the Saudi royal family (beginning with a princely palace here and there), there was no stopping him. Mohammed figured out a way around the 4-wives limitation by serial divorces and marriages, ending up with over twenty wives during his lifetime and fifty-four children. He built roads and condos, did major renovations at Mecca, got exclusive rights to all mosque construction, and even did work in Jerusalem. By the time he died in a plane crash in 1967, his company was worth some $150 million. In his estate, the sons each got double the shares of the wives and female children, but they all did just dandy. The son who took over in the role of family patriarch was the wild and charismatic Salem, who spread money around like desert sands, and who died in a plane crash of his own in 1988. Reading about the exploits of Salem will help you answer the question, "Hmmm, I wonder what I would do if I had a gazillion dollars to spend on having fun?" Next up was Bakr, a more serious fellow who remains a major business player in Sauda Arabia.Osama was the only son of a Syrian mother. Coll’s biography suggests to me a lot of commonalities with the young Mohammed Atta. Osama had big liquid brown eyes, was timid, distant from his father, and excessively tied to his mother (one pictures Atta still sitting on his mother’s lap even as an adult, just as Osama apparently was fond of sitting at his mother’s feet and stroking her). Both men seem to have developed a lot of anger, for which religious rigidity and anti-Semitism served as ready-made outlets. Sort of oddly, Osama’s stepfather had the name of Muhammad al-Attas.What Osama had that Atta did not, however, was a rather tidy inheritance, family business salary, and royal family connections. And ready access to construction equipment. Osama’s half brothers were happy to help him with Caterpillar tractors, “charitable” funds, and even weaponry, at least until 9/11. The family tried to distance themselves from Osama after that, many expressing fear that their own substantial fortunes might be put in jeopardy. The Saudi royals supported the Bin Laden’s efforts to function independently of whatever Osama did, and it probably also didn’t hurt that the Bin Laden family has other royal friends in high places, including Prince Charles in Britain and the Bush Dynasty in the U.S. Current profits from oil have enabled Saudi Arabia to go on a construction binge, and the Bin Ladens are reaping in the benefits. The company now has some 35,000 employees and oversees a vast construction empire. It is unclear what the future will bring for Osama, but he remains at large at Coll’s writing.
    • 4/5
      Of the many post 9/11 books that I have read, Steve Coll's Ghost Wars stood out for the combination of its readability, detailed research, and balanced tone. The moment I found out Coll had a new book on the Bin Laden's out, I rushed to find it cheap (thanks Costco...). The epic of the Bin Ladens details a family (and its dynamics) that stretch beyond any those a fiction writer could imagine. Mohammed Bin Laden was a self made multi millionaire, who turned what is best described as a foreman position at Aramco into international construction firm - most famous for its work at Islamic holy sites and its close relationship with the Saudi royal family. The Bin Laden's patriarch's view of both marriage and children seem by the standards of North America, well, very foreign. His many wives (who rapidly became ex-wives) had many sons (the most infamous son of which, Osama, was born in the same year as up to seven half siblings and in the same month as half brother) and many, literally, uncounted daughters. As the Bin Laden business empire (and of course their wealth) grew and thrived, the family became increasingly exposed to Western culture and the trapping of the nouveau riche. Some of the (half) brothers and sisters were sent to England, the US, and Lebanon (pre civil war) for education, where they embraced rock and roll, fast cars, and gawdy decor - or, were disgust by the same. The result was a culturally spilt family - the fission in which were most highlighted by who showed up when a half sibling married a European.The infamous Osama was the only Bin Laden to result from a brief marriage between a very young Syrian and the elder Bin Laden. As familial status is derived from both the mother's status as wife, and birth order, he was, by the standards of his half brothers, poorly educated, and remained a bit player in the Bin Laden family businesses. The lives of the favoured brothers (along with their father they take up 2/3 of the book) who successively became the family's patriarch - the play boy Salem and the serious Bakr - are plots worthy of books in themselves. The portions on Salem in particular are almost unimaginable interludes into "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous".Of the portions that deal with Osama himself, a large amount of effort is placed into finding the true extent of his wealth - which amounts to finding a paper trail of his inheritance. As the paper trail requires a basic understanding of the operation of Saudi business, it is more interesting than it appears. The best information appears to come from American divorce records... A second emphasis of the Osama part of the book deals with how the different factions of the family adapted to the increasing radicalism of Osama within a culture where even remote family ties that meet through a strong patriarch bind very tight. A very worthy followup to the Pulitzer Price winning Ghost Wars.