Books about Kuwait (1935-90)

English-language books published between 1935 and 1990

(1935) Black Tents of Arabia, Carl R Raswan
(1940) Sons of Sinbad, Alan Villiers
(1951) Beyond Euphrates, Freya Stark
(1955) Lands of Aladdin, Hakon Mielche
(1955) Wild Flowers of Bahrain and Kuwait, Violet Dickson
(1956) Kuwait and her Neighbors, HRP Dickson
(1957) The Golden Bubble, Roderic Owen
(1958) My Arabian Days and Nights, Eleanor T. Calverley, M. D.
(1959) The Arab of the Desert, HRP Dickson
(1958) Kuwait Was My Home, Zahra Freeth
(1960) Kuwait Today: A Welfare State, Ministry of Guidance and Information of Kuwait
(1962) Cadillacs und Coca-Cola, John Mueller
(1964) The Kuwait Urbanization, Saba George Shiber
(1964) Kuwait Tourist Guide, Ministry of Guidance and Information
(1965) The Oil of Kuwait
(1969) Looking for Dilmun, Geoffrey Bibby
(1970) Dishes from Kuwait, Fatimah Hussain Mutawwa
(1970) Kuwait Miracle on the Desert, David C. Cooke
(1970) Archaeological Investigations on the Island of Failaka, Ministry of Guidance and Information
(1971) Forty Years in Kuwait, Violet Dickson
(1971) Kuwait Journey, John Daniels
(1972) A New Look at Kuwait, Zahra Freeth
(1972) Kuwait: Prospect and Reality, Zahra Freeth
(1976) Kuwait, Ralph Shaw
(1978) Traditional Architecture in Kuwait And The Northern Gulf, Lewcock, Ronald & Zahra Freeth
(1979) Wizr, Keith Wells
(1979) The Middle Eastern States and the Law of the Sea, Ali El-Hakim
(1981) The Absorptive Capacity of Kuwait, Ragaei El Mallakh and Jacob K. Atta
(1981) Birds of the Arabian Gulf – The Natural History of the Arabian Gulf Series, Jennings, Michael C:
(1983) Kuwait Images, Gustavo Ferrari
(1983) Modern History of Kuwait, Abu Hakima
(1984) Merchant Families of Kuwait, JRL Carter
(1985) Immigrant Labour in Kuwait, Al-Moosa, Abdulrasool; McLachlan, K.S.
(1985) The Evolving Culture of Kuwait, Jennifer Scarce
(1985) The Voyage of Al Ghazeer, Yacoub Al Hijji
(1986) Russia & Arabia : Soviet foreign policy toward the Arabian Peninsula, Mark Katz
(1987) Discovering Kuwait’s Wildlife, Clayton, David and Wells, Keith
(1988) Kuwait Vanguard of the Gulf, Peter Mansfield
(1989) Arabian Peninsula

In her work Kuwait Transformed, Farah Al-Nakib writes that, “In 1960 the government hired Palestinian-American architect Saba George Shiber in the Ministry of Public Works (to be planning adviser and official architect). He was shocked by what he saw. He believed that Kuwait was an unfortunate victim of modern planning, and he described the impact of oil on its urban and social landscapes as ‘meteoric, radical, ruthless.’” She continues that Shiber, “felt foreign “experts” had led Kuwait down the wrong path of urban development, he lamented the destruction of the organically formed pre-oil town and its replacement with abstract planning and architectural influences that had no place, precedent, or purpose. His main contribution was the development of a new central business district in the heart of the city… only half of his plan was ever implemented.” In 1964, Shiber published The Kuwait Urbanization, which the following images come from.