Evil Paradises

A global guidebook to the “utopias” being constructed—in cities, deserts, and on islands—in a capitalist era unfettered by union and state regulations.

A New York Times Art and Architecture Critic’s Pick

Although they read like science fiction, the case studies are shockingly real. In Dubai, where child slavery existed until very recently, a gilded archipelago of private islands known as “The World” is literally being added to the ocean. In Medellín and Kabul, drug lords—in many ways textbook capitalists—are redefining conspicuous consumption in fortified palaces. In Hong Kong, Cairo, and even the Iranian desert, burgeoning communities of nouveaux riches have taken shelter in fantasy Californias, complete with Mickey Mouse statues, while their maids sleep in rooftop chicken coops. Meanwhile, Ted Turner rides herd over his bison in two million acres of private parkland.

Davis and Monk have assembled an extraordinary group of urbanists, architects, historians, and visionary thinkers to reflect upon the trajectory of a civilization whose deepest ethos seems to be to consume all the resources of the earth within a single lifetime.

“The elite worlds of overconsumption, fear, alienation and injustice the book describes in compelling detail are ‘clearly incompatible with the ecological and moral survival of humanity.’” —Jacklyn Cock, Global Labour Journal