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This is a bit skimpy on the details. I highly recommend every American adult to read The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. It will change the way
by Blackthorn 9y ago
This is a bit skimpy on the details. I highly recommend every American adult to read The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. It will change the way you think about the world. It also shows how Rockefeller was able to pivot his business from kerosene lamps, which were on the way to obsolescence, to fuel.
- Patient0 9y agoJust curious: why only American adults? (I am Australian)
- Blackthorn 9y agoWell, anyone else can read it of course. Just that the history of America as a superpower and the history of oil are pretty well entwined.
- Isamu 9y agoAustralians don't read, they wrestle crocodiles while drinking beer. Americans don't read either, though, they are too busy eating sufficient quantities to double their body fat. (I am American)
- taneq 9y agoDon't stop now! The English are too busy with tea and crumpets, the Irish with folk dancing, the Finns with sliding cars around on slippery roads, and the Norwegians with jumping off mountains in squirrel suits.
- dredmorbius 9y agoExcellent book. And recommended for the fine denizens of Altair IV (both of us) as well. I'd also very strongly recommend Vaclav Smil's Energy and World History (1994) or the updated Energy and Civilization (2017). These describe history through the lens of energy sources, and the role of energy in that history. Manfred Weisenbacher takes on much the same story in Sources of Power, which is a more comprehensive, if uneven, book. Excellently researched (and drawing heavily on Smil as well as many, many other sources), but could use some trimming and occasionally verges strongly to the polemical.