The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
Author: Daniel Yergin
List Price: $27.50
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ISBN: 0671502484
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (15 January, 1991)
Sales Rank: 887,804
Average Customer Rating: 4.65 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Top notch
This book is a complete and thorough history of the most important natural resource. Its reach is unequalled. From the beginning of the industry in western Pennsylvania to oil's modern strategic importance, the book is simply awesome in scope. Yergin does an excellent job of telling the story and backing it with plenty of source information and footnotes. After reading this book, I see World War II in a completely new way. Oil as a strategic resource has changed the face of warfare. I always knew this, but couldn't tell you exactly why. After reading this book, I can tell you why. I loved the history of the Germans' and Japanese efforts at synthetic fuels productions. This book also contains a good chapter about the Iran-Iraq war, a topic that has been relatively difficult to find good information on.
If I was forced to make one critical comment about this book I would say that I would have liked to have had one chapter describing some of the basic technical processes involved in refining oil. But with such a long and informative book, I suppose everybody could list "one" more chapter that they would have liked.
Read this book.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Definitive -- Yet Accessible -- History of the Oil Industry
The Prize follows the major developments in the oil industry, from its inception with the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company through the Gulf War. The Prize well deserves the praise it has received. Yergin's research and knowledge of the history of the oil industry are obvious and make this a great historical work, yet the length and the abundance of detail do not impinge on the readability of the book.
Among many insightful sections of this book, I found the chapters on the role of oil in the Second World War to be particularly interesting. After reading other books about the battles of that war, it was useful to learn something about the logistics behind those battles.
It is unfortunate that this book is already a decade old. In his epilogue, Yergin touches on the Gulf War and the effects of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world's largest oil producer in the late 1980's, but this was not quite history yet when he was writing The Prize.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Petroleum History Information
This book is one of the best around for historical information on the petroleum industry. It is put together in a very good chronological and logical manner that links many events and things together with each other through their common link of petroleum. It has a great deal of information on many of the leading petroleum producing nations of the world. Overall, it is a book that makes very enjoyable reading on the history and development of the petroleum industry and its importance in politics and economics. I would have given this book a five star rating if it had including much more information and deserved attention on the country of Canada and its petroleum industry since it is one of the biggest suppliers of petroleum to the United States. Also, mention of the diesel engine in its relationship as a solution to higher cetane vs octane fuels as found in early discovered petroleum is another important fact. It is hoped that if the author writes a revised version of his book that these things be considered. Similar Products
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