Synopses & Reviews
Pulitzer Prize Winner -- and Now an Epic PBS SeriesThe Prize recounts the panoramic history of oil -- and the struggle for wealth power that has always surrounded oil. This struggle has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, and transformed the destiny of men and nations. The Prize is as much a history of the twentieth century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of this history is enormous -- from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm.
The cast extends from wildcatters and rogues to oil tycoons, and from Winston Churchill and Ibn Saud to George Bush and Saddam Hussein. The definitive work on the subject of oil and a major contribution to understanding our century, The Prize is a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement -- and great importance.
Review
The Boston Sunday GlobePure narrative history, spun out as a tremendously exciting epic covering nearly six generations.
Review
James Schlesingerformer U.S. Secretary of Defense and U.S. Secretary of EnergyA masterly narrative...The Prize portrays the interweaving of national and corporate interests, the conflicts and stratagems, the miscalculations, the follies, and the ironies.
Review
San Francisco ExaminerImpassioned and riveting...only in the great epics of Homer will readers regularly run into a comparable string of larger-than-life swashbucklers and statesmen, heroes and villains.
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The Wall Street JournalSplendid and epic...brilliantly told.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [856]-881) and index.
About the Author
Daniel Yerginin is an authority on energy and world affairs. Chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and executive vice president of IHS, he is global energy expert for the CNBC business news network. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the Eccles Prize for The Prize, which has been translated into thirteen languages and was made into a much-acclaimed PBS/BBC series. His other books include Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy, about globalization and its challenges, and Shattered Peace, a classic history on the origins of the Cold War.
Table of Contents
ContentsList of Map
Prologue
PART I THE FOUNDERS
Chapter 1 Oil on the Brain: The Beginning
Chapter 2 "Our Plan": John D. Rockefeller and the Combination of American Oil
Chapter 3 Competitive Commerce
Chapter 4 The New Century
Chapter 5 The Dragon Slain
Chapter 6 The Oil Wars: The Rise of Royal Dutch, the Fall of Imperial Russia
Chapter 7 "Beer and Skittles" in Persia
Chapter 8 The Fateful Plunge
PART II THE GLOBAL STRUGGLE
Chapter 9 The Blood of Victory: World War I
Chapter 10 Opening the Door on the Middle East: The Turkish Petroleum Company
Chapter II From Shortage to Surplus: The Age of Gasoline
Chapter 12 "The Fight for New Production"
Chapter 13 The Flood
Chapter 14 "Friends" -- and Enemies
Chapter 15 The Arabian Concessions: The World That Frank Holmes Made
PART III WAR AND STRATEGY
Chapter 16 Japan's Road to War
Chapter 17 Germany's Formula for War
Chapter 18 Japan's Achilles' Heel
Chapter 19 The Allies' War
PART IV THE HYDROCARBON AGE
Chapter 20 The New Center of Gravity
Chapter 21 The Postwar Petroleum Order
Chapter 22 Fifty-Fifty: The New Deal in Oil
Chapter 23 "Old Mossy" and the Struggle for Iran
Chapter 24 The Suez Crisis
Chapter 25 The Elephants
Chapter 26 OPEC and the Surge Pot
Chapter 27 Hydrocarbon Man
PART V THE BATTLE FOR WORLD MASTERY
Chapter 28 The Hinge Years: Countries Versus Companies
Chapter 29 The Oil Weapon
Chapter 30 "Bidding for Our Life"
Chapter 31 OPEC's Imperium
Chapter 32 The Adjustment
Chapter 33 ,The Second Shock: The Great Panic
Chapter 34 "We're Going Down"
Chapter 35 Just Another Commodity?
Chapter 36 The Good Sweating: How Low Can It Go?
Epilogue
Chronology
Oil Prices and Production
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Photo Credits
Index