Library Journal
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This book does not require recent events in the Persian Gulf to make it an essential addition for most public libraries as well as all college libraries. Written by one of the foremost U.S. authorities on energy, it is a major work in the field, replete with enough insight to satisfy the scholar and sufficient concern with the drama and colorful personalities in the history of oil to capture the interest of the general public. Though lengthy, the book never drags in developing its themes: the relationship of oil to the rise of modern capitalism; the intertwining relations between oil, politics, and international power; and the relationship between oil and society in what Yergin calls today's age of ``Hydrocarbon Man.'' Parts of the story have been told as authoritatively before, e.g., in Irvine Anderson's Aramco: The United States and Saudi Arabia ( LJ 7/81), but never in as comprehensive a fashion as here.-- Joseph R. Rudolph Jr., Towson State Univ., Md. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In a vast (512-page), important, and timely work, Yergin (Shattered Peace, 1977; coeditor, Global Insecurity, 1982) eloquently details the rise and development of our hydrocarbon-based society. Yergin tells three distinct tales here: the evolution of the oil industry from its humble origins in the oil country of Pennsylvania to the international rivalries of the great Standard Oil trust and its successor companies; the pursuit of oil by world powers as great themes in both world wars, the Suez crisis, and postwar politics, and the use of oil by nation-states to achieve world prominence; and the growth of the world ""hydrocarbon culture,"" as oil has become a central component in the industrial world, with the stigmatization of oil as a primary culprit in the spoliation of the environment. Yergin's account of the early years of the oil industry is a tale of primitive capitalism run amok. However, the significance of oil became apparent after WW I--Yergin explains the German defeat largely as the Allies' success in denying them the Rumanian oil fields. The right to exploit oil resources became an engine of policy after WW I, and America's predominance in oil a prime factor in winning WW II. In the postwar period, industrial society's dependence upon oil became acute, and America's exploitation of the oil resources of poorer countries a continual irritant in its relations with those nations. Yergin shows the industrial West paralyzed by oil shortages during the Seventies; as the oil crisis faded and prices lowered, the West became complacent. The book concludes with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, underscoring the continued cultural and geopolitical importance of oil. An informative and thoughtful work that puts the cultural, political, and military history of the 20th century--the ""century of oil""--in a new, bright light. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
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Energy consultant Yergin limns oil's central role in most of the wars and many international crises of the 20th century. ``A timely, information-packed, authoritative history of the petroleum industry, tracing its ramifications, national and geopolitical, to the present day,'' said PW. Photos. Author tour. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Yergin ( Shattered Peace ), a much-quoted energy consultant, here offers a timely, information-packed, authoritative history of the petroleum industry, tracing its ramifications, national and geopolitical, to the present day. Oil, ``the world's biggest and most pervasive business,'' he shows, has played a central role in most of the major wars and many of the critical international situations of the 20th century, has changed the lives of virtually everyone on the planet and is currently at the heart of the first post-Cold War crisis of the 1990s. Yergin describes how, after an oil glut replaced the panic at the pump of the early 1980s, ``Hydrocarbon Man'' once again took petroleum for granted--only to be shattered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait this past August. Whatever the evolution of the international order, oil will remain the ultimate strategic prize, predicts the author in a book that will be widely discussed. He points out, however, that the environmental movement is gaining significant strength as more and more citizens of the world express a willingness to trade off energy production for environmental protection. Photos. Major ad/promo. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved