Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology, 1859-1920 - Softcover

Frehner, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803290624 ISBN 13: 9780803290624

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2016

Synopsis

Published in Cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.

Because oil has made fortunes, caused wars, and shaped nations, no one questions the assertion that the quest for oil is a quest for power. The question we should ask, Finding Oil suggests, is rather what kind of power prospectors have wanted. This book revises oil’s early history by exploring the incredibly varied stories of the men who pitted themselves against nature to unleash the power of oil.

Brian Frehner shows how, despite the towering presence of a figure like John D. Rockefeller as a quintessential “oil man,” prospectors were a diverse lot who saw themselves, their interests, and their relationships with nature in profoundly different ways. He traces their various pursuits of power from 1859 to 1920 as a struggle for cultural, intellectual, and professional authority over both nature and their peers. Charting the intersection between human and natural history, their stories trace the ever-evolving relationship between science and industry and reveal the unexpected role geology played in shaping our understanding of the history of oil.

About this title

About the Author

Brian Frehner is an associate professor of history at Oklahoma State University. He is the coeditor of Indians and Energy: Exploitation and Opportunity in the American Southwest.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803290624
• ISBN 13: 9780803290624
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248