Considering Qatar's proclaimed goal of building a knowledge-based society from its current gas-generated wealth, considering the attendant construction of numerous satellite campuses on the current periphery of Doha, and, more to the point, considering the substantial and almost decade-old transnational flow of academics, scholars, and researchers to those satellite campuses, one is left to ponder the surprising paucity of scholarly publications—and particularly monographs—on Qatar, its history, and its people. Does this dearth constitute evidence of a discrete self-censorship allied with the healthy paychecks issued by these satellite campuses? Or are scores of scholars busy typing away? Will this moment in time soon be remembered as the lull before a veritable storm of Qatar-focused monographs issued from the university presses in North America and Europe? Regardless, with Qatar: A Modern History, astoundingly prolific historian Allen Fromherz has crossed the finish line at the head of the pack, and while historians might have their own perspective on the book's resonance with those conversations specific to their scholarly subfield, the book is doubtless a welcome and foundational contribution to our understanding of Qatar's modern history, our understanding of the contours of khaleeji authoritarianism, and our apprehension of the role that tribes and tribalism play in the political arena of contemporary Qatar. The book's accessibility and clarity are a welcome bonus.

In the central thesis of the book, Fromherz hesitatingly contends that Qatari state and society possibly represent a model of modernity detached from the western template. This contention is supported by a sustained discussion and analysis of the ongoing role of tribe, lineage, and family in Qatari society. His discussion of the role tribes played in the recent past and continue to play in the contemporary political arena, although disconnected from much of the existing scholarship on Arabian tribe and tribalism, is nonetheless extremely insightful and perceptive. He also focuses intently on the paramount role mediation plays in both international relations and relations between the ruling family and the citizenry—a case he builds with numerous examples and evidence spread over several chapters. By the conclusion of the book, this mediative contention seems well supported, and one can suddenly perceive a pattern connecting many of Qatar's decisions in the international arena. His thesis concerning tribes, ancestry, and family, however, is less sure: although the pathway he traverses helps illuminate the social complexities and differences behind the homogenous social identity projected by the Qatari state, the tension between two contradictory theses—first, that “tribal affiliation and solidarity is slowly being replaced by national solidarity” (p. 29) and, second, that “tribes and lineage still matter within Qatar's internal political scene (p. 30)”—is, perhaps appropriately, never fully resolved.

More obliquely, Fromherz's book also helps us think around oil. With such significant hydrocarbon reserves and such a tiny citizenry, Qatar's wealth typically, and almost ubiquitously, figures centrally in any analysis of state and society. At the outset of his book, Fromherz notes that “the reader might be surprised that there is almost no mention of oil wealth” (p. 31) in the theses he maps. Instead, he builds the argument that Qatar's leading family, the Al Thani, “have maintained their power not through force or domination but through their historical legitimacy as leaders and defenders of the idea of Qatar and Qatari independence decades before the discovery of oil” (p. 157). His modern history supports that contention: Fromherz's analysis of tribal affiliations, his analysis of merchant power (and lack thereof), his inspection of Qatar's relations with the Ottomans, the British colonial system, and, later, with American oil companies, and his detailed explication of the specificities of Qatar's pearling industry, all point to the development of an authoritarian power that derives its legitimacy from a much broader field than the control of hydrocarbon resources alone.

Overall, this book should find an extensive audience. It provides an excellent and nuanced starting point for anyone interested in Qatar and would certainly serve well as an assigned text for advanced undergraduates. It is an excellent introduction to Qatari state and society, and it provides compelling and well-supported answers to the many questions that puzzle new academic arrivals in Qatar, particularly those concerning the positionality and relations of the families, clans, and tribes that constitute the Qatari citizenry. The book also finds an appropriate tenor: in building a critical analysis of Qatari modern history, Fromherz avoids the shrill and condescending tone that has oftentimes characterized analyses of Arabia. It similarly avoids the sycophancy that seems increasingly commonplace in Gulf scholarship.

The presence of a dozen or so typographical errors in the book is a minor annoyance. One would hope that Georgetown University, with its lucrative satellite campus in Qatar, could divert some fraction of those profits toward editorial assistance at the university's esteemed press.