Kuwait Transformed: A History of Oil and Urban Life

by Farah Al-Nakib

As the first Gulf city to experience oil urbanization, Kuwait City's transformation in the mid-twentieth century inaugurated a now-familiar regional narrative: a small traditional town of mudbrick courtyard houses and plentiful foot traffic transformed into a modern city with marble-fronted buildings, vast suburbs, and wide highways.

In Kuwait Transformed, Farah Al-Nakib connects the city's past and present, from its settlement in 1716 to the twenty-first century, through the bridge of oil discovery. She traces the relationships between the urban landscape, patterns and practices of everyday life, and social behaviors and relations in Kuwait. The history that emerges reveals how decades of urban planning, suburbanization, and privatization have eroded an open, tolerant society and given rise to the insularity, xenophobia, and divisiveness that characterize Kuwaiti social relations today. The book makes a call for a restoration of the city that modern planning eliminated. But this is not simply a case of nostalgia for a lost landscape, lifestyle, or community. It is a claim for a "right to the city"—the right of all inhabitants to shape and use the spaces of their city to meet their own needs and desires.

Genres: History, Architecture, Urbanism

296 pages, Hardcover

Published April 13, 2016

Reviews

[F · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully well-researched book by Farah Al-Nakib. It reads like a memoir, which the author herself acknowledges. ًWalking in the city constitutes rewriting, as well as writing the city. Al-Nakib inadvertently does that on every page: she walks, and writes, Kuwait City, and introduces is to me in a new light.

So many of the negative affects and issues that I, and many others, have noticed are wrong with Kuwait City and its dying civic participation is perfectly explained by Al-Nakib as a symptom of how the entire Kuwaiti population was content to be out of the city, and into segregated suburbs.

كتاب مهم و يتكلم عن العاصمة بشكل يبين للقارئ أهمية مدينة الكويت كمكان للعيش و التجمع بدل ما هو الآن: مكان للشراء و العودة للمنزل بعد الليل.

أود ترجمته للغة العربية و أن يقرأه كل كويتي و خليجي لأن أغلب ما تتحدث عنه فرح ممكن تطبيقه على الدول الخليجية الشقيقة مثل دبي و قطر.

[Alex Linschoten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart and (seems to) explain things well. This book, by a Kuwaiti scholar of urban development, attempts to chart Kuwait's history through the story of how land and urban environments were developed. It is a fascinating story, starting before oil first started to be tapped in 1946 where al-Nakib describes how the city and urban communities functioned and were arranged. From 1950 onwards, the city state's rulers embarked on a huge urban development / planning spree and the character of Kuwait was forever changed. If you're interested in a history of Kuwait that takes you beyond pure political agreements and ethnography, this is your book. Highly recommended, and really engagingly written to boot.

[Lucas De Lellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This helped me to understand so much better not only Kuwait, but all Gulf urban societies.

[Batul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prof. Nakib's book is a pointed, nuanced, and scathing indictment of how state-led modern planning and development have eroded the cosmopolitan urbanity of Kuwait following the advent of oil. While the content can seem a bit repetitive at points, Nakib articulates exceptionally well the complex ways in which urban life, citizenship, and state power are all inextricably intertwined with one another. It is an analysis that will resonate deeply with anyone who has lived/lives in the country and a must read for those looking for a deeper understanding​ of the socio-economic and political dynamics of the city-state.

[Jim Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about the development of Kuwait subsequent to the oil boom. Sensitive. Well-researched.

[Shane McClendon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I hate Kuwait so at least I have that going for me

[Abdullah M. M. S. · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst, and most biased, books I’ve ever read!

[Ahmad Almutairi · Rating 4 out of 5]

توثيق مفصل وتحليل لحالة التطور العمراني في الكويت ومدى تأثير ثروة النفط على هذا التطور وتفسير للوضع العام في ذلك الوقت ومدى قصر نظر المسؤولين وقتها في السعي نحو بناء دولة جديدة على حساب تاريخ المدينة القديمة. الكتاب يفصل (وينتقد) الأخطاء وعملية التطور العمراني التي حدثت دون دراسة حتى تمت الاستعانة بالمهندس سابا جورج شبر والذي صاغ مشروع التطور العمراني الجديد بشكل أنسب ومدروس. ركز الكتاب في بعض نقاطه على أهمية استعادة المواقع الاثرية ليس فقط لجعلها متاحف وانما لدمجها مع هذا التطور العمراني حتى يكون لهذا التطور هوية أصلية تعكس شكل المدينة القديمة. بعض النقاط التي تم ذكرها في الكتاب كانت حول تأثير الثروة المفاجئة على المواطنين أنفسهم وبينهم وكيفية تغير فكر الفرد حول نظرته للاخرين. بشكل عام، قراءة ممتازة لكتاب جدا مهم، من كتابة الدكتورة فرح النقيب، حسب علمي الكتاب مازال ممنوع في الكويت، لكن النسخ الرقمية متوفرة.

[Alyssa Kristeller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Farah Al-Nakib artfully depicts how Kuwait's transition into post-oil statehood destroyed its thriving urban diversity and community. Her analysis demonstrates how its development created and perpetuated geographical and physical hierarchies in society between Kuwaitis, Beduins, Non-Nationals, and Expatriates that are difficult to break even in today's era of hyper-connectivity. Through very interesting real-life stories, the perspective on an 'insider', and reference to urban planning theories and styles, this book will teach you exactly what you never knew you needed to know about Kuwait.