City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism

Dubai is everything the Arab world isn’t—a freewheeling capi - talist oasis in the desert—and in this new book, Jim Krane brings us a boots-on-the ground look at this fascinating city, straight from the heart of Dubai itself. Dubai, just a dusty village in the 1960s, has been transformed into the quint essential metro polis of the future through the vision of clever sheiks, British entrepreneurs, American capitalists who longed for a free market Mecca, and a river of investor money that poured in from around the globe. What these people created is a tolerant and cosmo politan city with luxurious resorts, architectural land marks, and outposts of America’s most prestigious companies and univer sities. It’s at once a magnet for the Middle East’s intelligentsia as well as one of the most eco-unfriendly places on the planet. In City of Gold, Jim Krane charts the history of Dubai from its earliest days, considers the influence of the Maktoum family which has ruled since the early nineteenth century, and looks at the effect of the global economic downturn on a place that many tout as a blueprint for a more stable Middle East