Combining bold ideas, unflinching critique, and irresistible narratives that weave together statistics, qualitative examples, and suggestive anecdotes, each of these essays demonstrates in quintessential Andersonian fashion the full power of the essay form for serious scholarly writing. Though originally published between the late 1970s and the early 1990s, they continue to resonate and, more importantly, remind one of the increasingly rare thrill that can be had reading academic writing.... Putting the Kingdom's cultural heritage under critical spotlight, as he does in [the] later pieces, Anderson hits where it hurts, perhaps moreso than with any political critique.- Samoson Lim (Asian Studies Review)