The Prize: Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power - Hardcover

Yergin, Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671502484 ISBN 13: 9780671502485

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 1991

Synopsis

Written by the author of "Shattered Peace" and "Energy Future", this book brings to life the tycoons, wildcatters, monopolists, regulators, presidents, generals and sheiks whose struggle for oil has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, transformed the destiny of Britain and the world and profoundly changed all our lives. Beginning with the first oil well of the 1850s and continuing up to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, it is a story of greed, gumption nad ingenuity, all in pursuit of "the prize" - worldwide economic, military and political mastery through the control of oil. The book includes the story of Shell Oil, a company forged in defiance of the Standard Oil monopoly by an upstart London trader, using Rothchild connections, Russian oil and Dutch petrolium concession in the East Indies. The central strategic role of oil in both world wars - from the decisive 4-knot-per-hour advantage of oil-burning ships in World War I to Rommel's stalled tank advance at El Alamein in War II (he literally ran out of petrol) The underground battle to wind the greatest prize of all - the Saudi oil concession. The inside story of the discovery of North Sea Oil and its crucial role in undermining the OPEC monopoly.

About this title

Review:

"The Wall Street Journal"Splendid and epic...brilliantly told. "The Boston Sunday Globe"Pure narrative history, spun out as a tremendously exciting epic covering nearly six generations. "San Francisco Examiner"Impassioned and riveting...only in the great epics of Homer will readers regularly run into a comparable string of larger-than-life swashbucklers and statesmen, heroes and villains. James Schlesingerformer U.S. Secretary of Defense and U.S. Secretary of EnergyA masterly narrative..."The Prize" portrays the interweaving of national and corporate interests, the conflicts and stratagems, the miscalculations, the follies, and the ironies. James Schlesingerformer U.S. Secretary of Defense and U.S. Secretary of EnergyA masterly narrative..."The Prize" portrays the interweaving of national and corporate interests, the conflicts and stratagems, the miscalculations, the follies, and the ironies. "San Francisco Examiner"Impassioned and riveting...only in the great epics of Homer will readers regularly run into a comparable string of larger-than-life swashbucklers and statesmen, heroes and villains. "The Boston Sunday Globe"Pure narrative history, spun out as a tremendously exciting epic covering nearly six generations. "The Wall Street Journal"Splendid and epic...brilliantly told.

About the Author:

Daniel Yergin is an authority on world affairs and the oil business. He is President of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a leading international energy consulting firm. He was previously a lecturer at the Harvard Business School and the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard. He coauthored the bestseller Energy Future, and his prize-winning book Shattered Peace has become a classic history on the origins of the Cold War. The Prize also won the 1992 Eccles Prize.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0671502484
• ISBN 13: 9780671502485
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 912