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 The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power :: 0671799320
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| Daniel Yergin's first prize-winning book, Shattered Peace, was a history of the Cold War. Afterwards the young academic star joined the energy project of the Harvard Business School and wrote the best-seller Energy Future. Following on from there, The Prize, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, is a comprehensive history of one of the commodities that powers the world--oil. Founded in the 19th century, the oil industry began producing kerosene for lamps and progressed to gasoline. Huge personal fortunes arose from it, and whole nations sprung out of the power politics of the oil wells. Yergin's fascinating account sweeps from early robber barons like John D. Rockefeller, to the oil crisis of the 1970s, through to the Gulf War. Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
Detailed history of oil--the most important commodity of our era. Beautifully written, exhaustively researched--and an enjoyable reading experience. One of those books that you don't want to put down.
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Author: Guest
Fantastic account of the history of oil. Mr. Yergin had provided a detailed and entertaining chronicle of the complex and tumultuous oil industry and the grand geopolitical game that nations have played (and continue to play) to control the flow of the "black gold." Will benefit students of economics, history, political science, as well as those who simply seek to understand the history of oil.
Amru Albeiruti
Ann Arbor, MI
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Author: Guest
This book is fantastic. Gripping, well-written, insightful. It tracks the history of a business that has gone from total anarchy to total centralization (and back again), from the iron grip of the West to the single most important threat to Western existence. Critical to understanding our world today and what challenges we face going forward.
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Author: Guest
It was worth all 877 pages. I have yet to find so comprehensive a book that explores the ever so complicated world as that spun around Oil. I found myself unable to put it down. According to Daniel Yergin, "Petroleum remains the motive force of industrial society and the lifeblood of the civilization that it helped to create." In an effort to drive his point home, Yergin sounds as if everything revolved around Oil. Judging from the extensive research he did one would almost think it did (or does). Yergin might be accused of totalizing the issue but I don't think he does that or even means to do it here. He certainly does not other elements/forces that motivate man and in fact even incorporates them. But his thesis and interest is Oil and for that he won a much deserved Pultizer Prize. I found Yergin's book to be an explanatory one. According to Yergin, the prime motive of the early American oilmen was greed. He writes that their "merciless methods and unbridled lust" nevertheless "turned an agrarian republic . . . into the world's greatest industrial power." Yergin is evenhanded about the motives, interests, rights, and pride of the Latin Americans, Arabs, and Persians who have had the questionable luck of sitting on most of the oil and who have long been dealing with the British, the Dutch, and the Americans who want to market and control it. Oil defines the 20th century. This is a huge claim, which Yergin makes. The Prize undeniably is worth buying, having, and discussing. The book is extensive and heavily researched and chronicles the development of the Oil industry from its inception to the development of OPEC and the eventual price stabilization of the 1980s. Yergin also deftly articulates the development of the usual suspects: Standard Oil, Shell, Gulf, Royal Dutch, etc. Moreover he goes into extensive detail about wild-catters and independents. We are introduced to several enigmatic individuals ranging from John D. Rockefeller to William F. Buckley, Sr., and Armand Hammer. We are transported to the yacht of Sheik Yamani and to the home of a young Col. Qaddafi. We are there are those responsible are setting the stage for the rise of OPEC and we experience how the member states navigate through their various issues and agendas. I was especially intrigued by the treatment of Mossadegh, the Shah Reza Pahlevi, and Saddam Hussein. Yergin sensitively considers how important oil is, nor is he surprised when deceitfulness and brutality are used against those who won't play ball, as in Iran to bring Mossadegh down, or in Kuwait to get Saddam out. Yergin's realism makes explicit that not only the West and Japan, but also those close to him, could never have afforded to trust Saddam with his Oil reserves. Did he sensationalize? Perhaps. However, for all the time spent reading the book I can only sing praises to a book that has enhance my understanding of the Middle East and beyond. Is there a PBS series that spun out of this book? If not, there should be.
Miguel Llora
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Author: Guest
I found this book to be extraordinarily interesting--the world changed on the day that oil was found by Colonel Drake, and as Yergin puts it, the cheers of the crowd that had gathered round his well have never really stopped, they've just moved from place to place for the last 140 years. This book chronicles how oil, "the blood of the earth", has been both a blessing and a curse to everyone it has touched, from John D. Rockefeller to Saddam Hussein.
As an example of the importance of oil, Yergin shows that Patton could have ended WW II 9 months earlier than it actually ended but for the lack of gasoline for his tanks. In that time, Russia advanced on Germany from the east, allowing or forcing the partition of Germany at the end of the war. Millions of lives could have been spared and the postwar map would have been totally different but for a few hundred thousand gallons of gasoline. Before and since, people have learned that, without gasoline, cars and trucks and trains and planes are useless hunks of junk. Oil is about power, in every sense of the word. Yergin shows how that's been true from the beginning of the search for the "new light".
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