City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism

When traveling to a new country for work for an extended period of time, I try to read a book or two that provides some historical and cultural context to the place. It's nice to get some grounding on the place I'm visiting, and I've found this contributes both to my enjoyment of the locale and also my understanding of the people I'm working and interacting with. For the first-timer to Dubai, I don't think you could do much better than this book. The author is clearly fascinated by his subject matter, and brings passion and deep expertise to his writing. Mr. Krane presents Dubai through the eyes of a reporter, providing first-hand interviews from the men and women behind the scenes in Dubai, and presenting several facets of the key aspects of the city. Rather than a puff piece or agenda-driven slash job, the author presents the positives and negatives of Dubai's breakneck development and allows the reader to form their own conclusions at the benefit of his research and commentary. While it's missing the details of Dubai's economic crash, it certainly gives one the grounding to make more sense of Dubai's chances for the future. Aside from a jab or two at former US President GW Bush, which seems a bit hackneyed and trite in 2012, the book was well-researched and unbiased, and managed the difficult task of remaining entertaining rather than reading like a graduate thesis. I was unable to set the book down, and found my evening walks through Dubai complemented by each chapter I read. The only flaw I found was several photographs are mentioned in the acknowledgments, but none appear in the Kindle edition of the book, although they would not have been missed unless one read the end notes. For the casual observer, it's tempting to dismiss Dubai as the "Las Vegas of the Middle East," but Mr. Krane provides a deeper, more nuanced view of this fascinating place. Beneath the shiny buildings there are subtle undercurrents, and I found each chapter of this book provided a welcome exposure to yet another facet of the City of Gold.

This high level overview of Dubai, as told by (I think) a journalist who has spent a number of years there is a light, enjoyable introduction to the emirate. It points to important criticisms, but pulls its punches. It's a love letter. There are what appear to be typos and repetitions of sentence structure that give the book a self-published feel. The book is showing its age, too, as it makes a big deal out of the 2008-9 real estate crash in Dubai, and the Epilogue only touches on issues through 2010. It's good up to that point, but I suspect there has been a great deal of further change in the intervening years. I got out of it what I was looking for and really appreciated the author's work. 4/5, with handicapping for the sort of book it is.

I contributed as a source in a small way to Jim Krane's book on Dubai. I am considered one of the world's true experts on Dubai, having lived, worked and had children born there since 1979. However, as I read Kranes book, I was overwhelmed by the number of things - important historical facts and perspectives - that I had not known. As can be discerned from my opening statement, I have read many books and articles and written many reports about Dubai. None, truly none, are as complete, and fair as City of Gold. Krane is complimentary where such is earned, and critical when warranted (such as his valid concerns about environmental neglect). He gives a really detailed flavor of the different phases Dubai has gone through and good explanations why they occured. And I totally agree with him that while Dubai will continue to struggle in the next several years to dig out from under the landslide that was the property collapse and its many consequences, it WILL rise again like the Phoneix it is, and that is because of the facts - none of the big neighboring countries offers a liberal social environment or a business friendly regime (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq...) and with the continuing key role of oil funds globally, Dubai is so well established as a service center for the globe between London and Singapore it cannot be easily supplanted. That Dubai has tasted a deep dose of humble pie and reality has grounded these high flying entrepreneurs is all to the good, as Dubai was getting out of control and turning into a caricature called Disney World on steroids. But even for experts such as myself(and people do pay good money for my advice) Kranes book was both informative and entertaining. And fair, accurate and balanced. 5 stars. Must reading. Charles Kestenbaum (former US Commercial Counselor at US Consulate Dubai and founder, American Business Council of Dubai)

I'm dazzled by this factual, historical work of non-fiction that reads like a novel with, at times, a somewhat riveting first-person narrative. Krane enticed me after the first few pages - and unexpectedly so - as I sat down ready for some dry non-fiction. "City of Gold" multi-dimensionally recreates Dubai on paper; from the positive and hopeful to the negative sides of its insatiable quest for meteoric success via capitalism. As Krane relates a rare, inside view into Dubai's government, he doesn't hesitate to take an unbiased, multi-angled stance as he relates his findings. Kudos for telling it like it is, and in a thorough, readable fashion. While it'd make an excellent text book, I'd actually recommend it to many more folks than I'd otherwise do for a book on a Middle Eastern city-state! It's just... cool! His awards and accolades thus far are spot-on and well-deserved; they validate my own experience. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has even a remote interest in Dubai - and for those who just want a great read about something new and different than this world has seen before. Can't wait for his next book!

I wish I would have discovered City of Gold when I took my trip to Dubai in '08. I saw many of the things that Mr. Krane described in the book. I drove past some of the areas where the workers lived and now I can better understand why their conditions were so squalid, which was in contrast to the Emiratis who enjoy the trappings of the City of Gold. Having said that, I continue to root for Dubai as a place that could offer a vision for better stability for disadvantaged countries in a growing region. (And as a tourist I can say that it was a ton of fun snow skiing inside when the temperature outside was over 100 degrees!) Thank you for a great book. Highly recommend for those who want to immerse themselves in the history of the Dubai and the surrounding region.

I started reading this near the end of a trip to Dubai and I wish I had read it earlier. It is an excellent introduction to this city-state and will explain in advance many of the questions that will arise anyway in the course of your travels. For readers who do not plan to travel to Dubai, it provides a good historical and cultural introduction to an important part of the Arab world. Krane does not stint on his criticisms of the government or the royal family, but also acknowledges the progressive and visionary elements of the current leadership. I highly recommend this book if you are planning a trip to the UAE. If you weren't planning to go there, this book will certainly whet your curiosity.

This book gives a fascinating, first-hand account of Dubai that was very detailed and fascinating. Nevertheless, the book has an incredibly biased twinge stemming from its publication date of 2009 and the GFC, making it quite outdated to some interested in modern Dubai. Additionally, the book starts off somewhat chronologically, but ends up in a disorganized mess of sections based off seemingly random section headers, adding to feeling of confusion and the repetition of certain topics and points numerous times. Still, I couldn’t find a better book about the history of Dubai, and it’s definitely worth a read!

I loved this book! Although I found it entertaining and highly readable, I was able to sink my teeth into the substantial critique of Dubai's government and the many problems the city-state faces (eg., has extensive immigrant labor simply replaced slavery, not outlawed until 1963?). I appreciated Krane's balanced and fair perspective made possible both by his experience as a consultant in the (Ruler's) Executive Office, and by his extensive interviews with local people, both immigrants and Emiratis: educators, prostitutes, a former slave, Iranians, construction workers, a (female)former government official turned environmentalist, and others. Even though I've been in Dubai several times I had little real understanding of what I was seeing until I read Krane's book. Dubai is not a democracy but is a city tolerant of many religions and cultures living side by side, a model far beyond the middle east. Much can also be learned from this book about the Dubai Ports issue, the delicate balance Dubai maintain with both Iran and the USA, and the little known relationship with Israelis via diamonds. I look forward to watching Dubai emerge from the current slump and hope that our government will be wise enough to link any nuclear power assistance to Dubai's improving human rights.

super book about Dubai

a great survey of dubai's history up until the financial crisis gave me a solid appreciation of what it's rulers have achieved - extraordinary visionaries who also got things done dubai is under-rated

Jim Krane writes in typical humorous Economist style, i. e. understandably. He illuminates backgrounds, makes readers comfortable with seemingly difficult engineering topics like pumping up concrete to make possible the world's largest building. Moreover, he generates an easily interpreted graphic image of things by constantly using comparisons; e. g. Dubai is the size of x-many football fields. He expounds challenging "navigation [being] akin to Sudoku" and citizenship being "guarded like a vault of nuclear fuel rods." What I'm missing is a critique that it's not politically correct to put biz above human rights. Well, knowing what happened in some North African states and neighboring Bahrain at the beginning of 2011, history will tell. One may excuse Mr. Krane that he wrote the epilogue of this book last year and he simply describes the Dubai monarchy in eloquent terms without vindicating it. Moreover, you learn about topics like environment, demographic imbalance, economy or prostitution. Furthermore, Mr. Krane elucidates problems arising from the quick change of Dubai being a dominated by machos of nomads as recently as 50 years ago into being a dominated by machos in the 21st century. Mr. Krane quotes plenty of references for those who'd like to dig deeper. Last but not least, while reading this brilliant page turner you learn something about the history of this autocratic city state. In conclusion: I can highly recommend this well written book to all interested in current affairs.

It's an easy read about the history and present situation in Dubai. Lot's of good information, observations and anecdotes. Just - however - buy one of Jim Cranes books about Dubai. The content of two is identical. I bought both.

An excellent book, giving a great onsite into the growth and prosperity of the UAE.