Oil, Power, and War
A Dark History
by Matthieu Auzanneau
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Pub Date Nov 07 2018 | Archive Date Nov 08 2018
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Description
The story of oil is one of hubris, fortune, betrayal, and destruction. It is the story of a resource that has been undeniably central to the creation of our modern culture, and ever-present during the darkest exploits of empire the world over. For the past 150 years, oil has become the most essential ingredient for economic, military, and political power. And it has brought us to our present moment in which political leaders and the fossil-fuel industry consider extraordinary, and extraordinarily dangerous, policy on a world stage marked by shifting power bases.
Upending the conventional wisdom by crafting a “people’s history,” award-winning journalist Matthieu Auzanneau deftly traces how oil became a national and then global addiction, outlines the enormous consequences of that addiction, sheds new light on major historical and contemporary figures, and raises new questions about stories we thought we knew well: What really sparked the oil crises in the 1970s, the shift away from the gold standard at Bretton Woods, or even the financial crash of 2008? How has oil shaped the events that have defined our times: two world wars, the Cold War, the Great Depression, ongoing wars in the Middle East, the advent of neoliberalism, and the Great Recession, among them?
With brutal clarity, Oil, Power, and War exposes the heavy hand oil has had in all of our lives—and illustrates how much heavier that hand could get during the increasingly desperate race to control the last of the world’s easily and cheaply extractable reserves.
Advance Praise
“The new definitive work on oil and its historic significance, supplanting even Daniel Yergin’s renowned The Prize.”—Richard Heinberg, author of Our Renewable Future
“Beautifully written and translated, Oil, Power, and War provides a detailed history of oil’s impact on economic and technical advances. [It] offers a profound new understanding of oil’s role in war and peace, growth and stagnation, and casts new light on the foundations of national power and the challenges that lie ahead. A terrific education and an engrossing read.”
—Dennis Meadows, coauthor of The Limits to Growth
“The definitive history of the rise and eventual fall of oil, brilliantly told. Auzanneau illuminates the history of our time driven by cheap oil and the persistent search for more at all costs. Insightful, authoritative, and essential reading. A dazzling and wise book.”
—David Orr, author of Dangerous Years
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781603587433 |
| PRICE | $35.00 (USD) |
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Featured Reviews
Bimal P, Reviewer
Oil, Power and War is probably going to be the new definitive history of Oil. I wouldn't say it replaces Daniel Yergin's The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, a Pulitzer Prize winner but it certainly builds upon Yergin's book with some modifications. For example, Yergin's book talks about the story of Oil till only 1980 and even then only from the perspective of those who were winners in this game. Matthieu Auzanneau's book continues the story up to most recent times and how Oil has been influential in shaping the political and economic environment. Make no mistake even at 600 pages, shorter than Yergin's book at 900 pages it is still full of facts, and who's who and timelines that the reader is better advised to keep track of as he or she moves from page to page. The plethora of characters resembles that of some russian literature say Anna Karenina but if you really read it without extended breaks I am sure you can keep track of them. The chapters are broken down in short topics that keeps it interesting. Needless to say the book takes you all the way from origin of Oil at organic level to its uses and how it has, it is and will probably continue shaping our world's political, cultural, social, industrial and military situation. The oil dubbed Black Gold indeed has been a single most vital natural resource surpassing King Coal to give us the world we inhibit now. It would be hard to find a single entity, a single object that does not have finger prints of petroleum in its origin.
Overall, this book I think is an extension of it's predecessor The Prize and definitely adds way more information on the current situation as it relates to Oil. With that being said if you are deciding to pick up a definitive book on the biography of Oil and its influence, I would recommend you pick up this new book Oil, Power and War as it is most current on the subject.
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