This was once Dubai:
A History of Future Cities, a book by Daniel Brook, links Shanghai and Dubai with two other famous cities, Saint Petersburg and Mumbai. The book, which is smoothly written and packed with historical information (for example, one of the best sections is devoted to Mumbai’s main train station, which was built in 1887 and represented in its design and art the Victorian faith in science), argues that these cities have one thing in common: they fell out of the sky. Brook’s meaning is that kings and big business interests willed these cities into existence. The book’s final chapter on Dubai holds the brightest and saddest goods/insights…
