Fuccaro's City and State is the best single-volume history on urban development in the Persian Gulf. Focusing on the city of Manama, once the seat of the British political residency and now the capital of the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain, the book brings to life the decisions, policies and challenges the city faced over the centuries. The first chapter takes the reader back in time, considering the earliest examples of urbanization in Manama which, for the most part, were also the earliest examples of urbanization on the Arabian peninsula. Drawing on an extensive survey of the literature, including the noted gazetteers of the Gulf and the numerous travel diaries recorded by British travellers and administrators, these pages bring to life the hustle and bustle of an emerging Arabian metropolis. Particularly colourful are the insights provided by the interviewees, which have been perfectly interwoven into the text by Fuccaro.

The second chapter sets the scene for Manama's twentieth-century development by placing Bahrain and its urbanization in the broader context of other emerging cities on the peninsula including, most notably, the nearby city of Kuwait. A range of challenges and pressures are considered, including the Ottoman influence and the spread of Wahhabism, both of which greatly impacted on the societies, lifestyles and even architecture of Gulf towns. Particularly enlightening is the discussion of the Manama elite's relative cosmopolitanism: as a key trading hub we learn that its wealthy merchant class were just as comfortable speaking English, Hindi and Farsi as they were at conversing in their native khaleeji Arabic. This closely mirrors the merchant elite of the Gulf's other booming merchant city of Dubai, and allows the reader to contrast Manama and Dubai with the other, less urbanized population centres on the peninsula such as Doha and Abu Dhabi. The third and fourth chapters of the book are undoubtedly invaluable for students and scholars of municipal development and urban geography. The reader is carefully guided through the ordering of community in Manama and, perhaps of greatest fascination, the introduction of basic law and order services to the expanding city. We learn, for example, of the British expatriate Charles Belgrave who became a key advisor to the ruling family and helped to set up the first Bahrain police force in 1940. He also served as the chief financial officer of the ruler and as an all-round éminence grise, and – significantly perhaps – fell out of favour with the British residency given his perceived closeness to the ruling family.

The final chapters, as readable and engrossing as the historical background, provide an equally fascinating insight into modern Manama as the city's administrators grappled with a range of concerns including the accommodation and management of large expatriate communities, the need for green space within the municipality and the effort to make religious institutions, festivals and other events assume a geographic centrality in the city. The conclusion provides an accurate and eloquent summary of the book's 220-page discussion. Drawing together the various threads explored by the main chapters, it serves to highlight a number of key themes, most notably that Manama was very much an Arab city despite its hosting of the British residency and Bahrain's integration into Britain's ‘Trucial States’ informal imperial system in the Persian Gulf. Moreover, it makes very clear that Manama was a geographic centre of politics in the region, with many of the short-lived Arab nationalist movements in the Gulf using the city's streets and public spaces to communicate their message to an unsure and for the most part confused population, and all of this within very close proximity to key physical manifestations of British imperial power.

A special mention must be made of the wonderful collection of photographs and posters included in the volume. In all cases these strengthen the arguments contained in the text and add much colour to Fuccaro's thesis. Among others, readers should look out for one of Belgrave appointing of Pakistani police officers whilst sitting in his colonial-style office, a 1950s photograph of the old Manama police fort and an old photograph of the original Manama municipality building festooned with Union Jacks on the occasion of George VI's coronation in 1937. The language is engaging and the writing style is clear. The chapters are well laid out and the structure is easy to follow. As such, despite the extensive and exhaustive research that has gone into preparing this seminal volume, it should also be easily accessible to undergraduate and postgraduate students and indeed all who have an interest in the region.