Motivations for writing an autobiography vary; some authors seek to shed light on aspects of their lives or to justify certain actions they have taken. Others write out of nostalgia for the past, while some autobiographies are penned primarily for financial gain\u2014often by celebrities whose private lives the public is eager to explore.
\nAlthough the author of this autobiography\u2014the late King Hussein bin Talal (1935\u20131999)\u2014was one of the twentieth century\u2019s most prominent political figures, his primary objective in writing this work (which he described in the first chapter simply as “memoirs”) was not profit; he had no need for it. Rather, his aim was to reveal many facts that had remained hidden or had been deliberately distorted\u2014whether at the time of the events or subsequently\u2014by the media and malicious writings. These facts concerned aspects of his personal life (as both a human being and a monarch), his stances and achievements, and the Kingdom of Jordan\u2014its land and people\u2014as well as its Arab, regional, and international relations during the period covered by the book (spanning from the King\u2019s birth in 1935 to the birth of his son, King Abdullah II, in 1961). This was one of the most perilous eras Jordan ever faced, marked by a multitude of conspiracies that threatened its very existence. Perhaps the most striking features of this memoir are its honesty, clarity, and boldness, as well as its literary quality\u2014placing it alongside autobiographies by world-renowned figures in literature and thought. It excels in stylistic mastery, focus, narrative structure, and suspense, reading as though penned by a man well into his fifties or sixties rather than someone in the prime of youth (he was twenty-six when he wrote it). Furthermore, the memoir reveals the late King Hussein\u2019s profound bond with Jordan\u2014both its land and its people\u2014and with the Arab nation; it highlights his sincere love for them, his immense sacrifices for their advancement and prosperity, and his deep-seated belief in freedom and democracy, which he staunchly defended regardless of the cost.<\/p>\n
In all of this, he drew inspiration from the stance of his grandfather and the Kingdom\u2019s founder, the late King Abdullah I\u2014who was martyred before his eyes at the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 1951\u2014as well as from the principles of the Great Arab Revolt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This autobiography chronicles the experience of governance and the accompanying political and humanitarian challenges. It sheds light on aspects of the author’s personal life, pivotal decisions, and Arab and international relations, while documenting significant events in Jordan\u2019s history during a critical era of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_cat":[839,832,854],"product_tag":[1148,1072,1084,1343],"class_list":["post-32792","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-history-and-geography","product_cat-politics","product_cat-biography-and-memoirs","product_tag-culture","product_tag-history","product_tag-politics","product_tag-thought","pa_book-author-hussein-bin-talal","first","onbackorder","sale","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/32792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=32792"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=32792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}