The Prize
Daniel Yergin (1991)
788 pp.
Rating: 5 out of 5
This is a brilliant history of oil and the oil industry (and really, much more interesting than that might make it sound!). Where it leads to, of course, is globalization. Where it starts from is American capitalistic imperialism. Oil seems like it might well have been one of the first truly multi-national businesses. It’s certainly at the core of several world and regional wars, and one might justifiably place a lot of current global tensions at its doorstep.
The book is extremely thorough. Perhaps a bit too much at the beginning for my taste, but it does all build up to a centry and a half overview. It certainly starts to get good around 1910 and the build up to WWI. In fact, Yegin does an amazing job detailing how oil figured prominently in WWi, WWII, then the cold war and the geopolitical struggle, especially in the Mideast, that occured after that. I certainly have a much much clearer idea of why the US (and other countries) have gone to war, made the 'friends' they have, snuggled up to dictators, and much much else. One of the major turning points was when both the US and Brittain made the choice to convert their Navies from coal to oil, knowing full well that their domestic production of oil was insufficient to meet their military needs. This set the stage for a prolonged military, diplomatic and/or economic relationship (aka as a stranglehold) on the Middle East.
Growing up in the late 70's, i never did understand what was behind the Iranian hostage 'crisis'. Now I do. In the 90's and more recently, I never could figure out why the US had/has such a close relationship with the Saudi Arabians. Now I do. Buying gas, I never did know who was behind all those different gas stations. No I do.
I think most remarkable, and perhaps most pertinent is the work this book does uncovering US private interests (private industry) and their role in collaborating with the US government, to accomplish geopolical aims. The US government and the oil industry have been in bed together a long long time. I know realize that G.W. Bush is just the logical extension of 150 years of history.
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