09 Aug IHC Pre-Doctoral Fellow: Paul Reed Baltimore
Paul Reed Baltimore is a Doctoral Candidate in History. His dissertation is titled From the Camel to the Cadillac: The Culture of Consumption and the U.S.-Saudi Special Relationship.
From the Camel to the Cadillac tells a story of how the political economies of the United States and Saudi Arabia became bonded between 1945 and 1983 in a shared culture of consumption based on the intimate link between petroleum and the automobile. Despite growing U.S.-Saudi interdependence following World War II, contradictions within this transnational consumer culture engendered estrangement and mutual hostility among the American and Saudi publics. After the oil price hikes of 1973-74, these consumerist anxieties complicated efforts of American and Saudi elites to manage the relationship, contributing ultimately to the increasing militarization of the Gulf region.