“Keepers of the Golden Shore covers the country from prehistory to the present day in less than 250 pages. . . . A welcome, readable, and much-needed starting point for new readers and new arrivals to the UAE who want a better understanding of the people and places around them.”

National

“Morton, who grew up in the Gulf, writes with calm authority and rational judgment about the often passionate rivalry between the various emirates and their ruling families, several of which engaged in fratricide and other dastardly acts. . . . For anyone who wants to understand from where what is now the UAE emerged and how that happened this is a most useful and readable account.”

Jonathan Fryer | InterLib Magazine

"This excellent and readable book, with a wealth of illustrations, begins by charting the early tribal history of the coast and its extensive trading relationships."

Anglo-Omani Society Review

"Keepers of the Golden Shore, Morton’s fifth book about the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf and one explicitly intended for expatriate readers, provides those newly arrived in the region with a readable, enjoyable introduction to the states and their history. . . . Morton’s work is an important step in integrating eastern Arabia into broader historical narratives of the Middle East, which frequently view the rise of Arab identities and states through the lens of the Levant and the Arab republics while ignoring or segregating the rise of oil monarchies. . . . A welcome addition to scholarship on the United Arab Emirates, not least because of Morton’s personal experiences in and respect for the country and its people. He resists the tendency to paint an overly rosy picture of British friendship and 'protection' of the region, which dominates the archives and some of the scholarship on the Persian Gulf, while also recognizing and accounting for the personalities, feuds, and limitations of ruling shaykhs. The end result is an excellent introduction to the subject."

Arab Studies Journal

“Morton offers us a comprehensive history of the United Arab Emirates from the earliest times to the present. It is an enthralling tale, told with verve and clarity, and covers the emergence of Greater Oman after the coming of Islam, the rise and fall of the pearling industry, the hungry years of the Second World War, and the discovery of oil. Evocative illustrations remind us that this is living history in the sense that much of the history is relevant to the life of the UAE today, particularly relationships within the emirates and the state’s relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia.”

Sir Harold Walker, former ambassador to the UAE