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

After reading this book, you'll have a very good understanding of how the oil industry developed from its beginnings, for all countries involved. The evolution of the industry and companies involved is thoroughly explained, as well as their impact on the world economy and global politics to the present. This is a completely interesting book on the subject.

It delivers across the board: turgid vignettes of the main players, like Old Mossy; insights into events I lived thru but didn't understand till now, like Nasser and the Suez Canal. I don't have any complaints really, just two minor ones: the discussion of detailed negotiations tends to be long-winded, but otherwise that's not a problem. I know this is not a science book, perhaps because Americans tend to be scared by science and chemistry, but I would have loved to have had some chemistry and geology tossed in to replace the overly detailed negotiation accounts. This is a wonderful book, among the top ten non-fiction books I have ever read. Yergin has a wonderfully readable style, loads of information that is easily digested. I heard he was writing a new book about oil, and I am sure it will be great.

They say history repeats itself, well it certainly seems to when it comes to oil. Constant fear of shortages, constant complaints of prices and profits. This book is a wonderful look at the industry surrounding the substance our prosperperity is based on. A highly interesting collection of characters and situations. I recommend it to anyone.

Fascinating account of the history of the oil industry. I would say that just the four chapters on World War II--and the oil role in it--are worth the book. Reads like a novel, where Yergin jumps back and forth between history and details about the industry main players. And the amount of details that enrich the historic account is just perfect. The research done to put this work together must have been mind boggling.

Yergen gets kudos for being the first to cover this topic, but his account (perhaps because it's now outdated) is facile and pro-oil company. Every time the oil companies are thwarted he seems to blame straw men for it: tree huggers, the people that hounded poor misunderstood Tricky Dick Nixon, the Saudi sheiks (best friends of Bush, Cheney, et al). He never turns his gaze on the corruption of the oil companies themselves. We hit peak oil in the U.S. in the 1960s. The oil companies suppressed any attempts since then to find alternative fuels. Now we are up the creek, so to speak, with the Oil Men running the Show. Some "Prize". I'd say it's the booby prize. The best overview of our current fix is Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower.