The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power

Daniel Yergin made is his name as an oil industry analyst by writing this book. As far as I am aware, this book is the best history of the oil industry ever written.

It is comprehensive and begins prior to the start of the modern oil industry, discusses the U.S. oil industry when U.S. oil production on U.S. soil was a major player in global oil. It then proceeds to the rise of middle east production, the formation of ARAMCO (Saudi American Oil Company), and winds its way to the modern dominance of the oil and gas fields in and about the Persian Gulf. You may need to check for an updated edition - if there is one - or supplement this book with the history of the oil industry within the last ten years. This supplementation is just a function of when this book was published. The book has not been superceded in its field.

This is required reading for any student of the global oil industry.

Yergin's opus is a compelling read but the plot falls apart in the paperback version - literally! The pages start to separate from the binding before you're 100 pages into your read. If your goal in purchasing a paperback is transportability the loss of entire sections actually makes the book a bit easier to carry around, but don't plan on lending it after you're done.

As a third generation oilman, this book, while now dated by about eighteen years, gives the reader one of the best oil and gas history books ever written. It was the last book that my father, a wiildcatter for over forty years, read before his death and he too was amazed how Mr. Yergin was able to take such enormous amount of information and distill it down into a narrative as if one were there during the major events that shaped the petroleum industry. If only the so-called envirnomentalists would lift a finger and read books like this, their credibilty as to the subject matter would rise dramatically. What is striking about this particular history book on the petroleum industry, is how Mr. Yergin does a tremendous job in informing the reader how petroleum actually brought human society into what we now call the "modern age" and how the industry truly affected almost every event over the last 150 years, from scientific advancements to world wars. I would put this book into the category of required reading for anyone entering the oil and gas business right up there with "The Greatest Gamblers" written almost a half century ago by Ruth Sheldon Knowles.

I just finished the Prize after 4 months and it was a great read. The chapters on WWII were outstanding. What America wouldn't give to be back in the days of $40 barrel of oil again! I now have a greater understanding of the Middle East and the history of politics there. Highly recommend this well deserving Pulitzer winner.

This is a great book, period! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this history of the oil industry. It shows the incredible power of Oil, the primary reason we have grown and become so affluent as a country....imagine a world without Oil...where would you be?
Should be considered required material in high school so that all students learn about a very important aspect to their daily lives.
I work in the oil industry and I learned a few things about my industry. I try to read everything written by Daniel Yergin, including his Russia 2010 and The Commanding Heights, exceptional writer.