At the beginning of Mr. Lacey's monumental work he relates a conversation he had with a Georgetown educated member of the House of Saud: "I have lived in the Kingdom over 30 years, yet if I was to put down on paper how my family and this country worked, I would be lucky if I got a B+ mark. You have spent four years with us. The best you can hope for is a C."
Lacey clearly did his homework, as the large bibliography indicates. Moreover, he actually lived in the Kingdom, unlike so many "Saudi experts." And while there, he conducted numerous interviews with key individuals, who entrusted him with versions of historical reality not often seen in other works. He mastered his source materials, and wrote an immensely readable history of the Kingdom until the ascension of King Fahd to the throne in 1982.
A full 40% of the book relates to events prior to the actual proclamation of the Kingdom in 1932.