The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power | 
| Author: Daniel Yergin
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  141 reviews
Sales Rank: 5678
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 928
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.8
ISBN: 0671799320
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.272820904
EAN: 9780671799328
ASIN: 0671799320
Publication Date: January 1, 1993
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Amazon.com Review
Daniel Yergin's first prize-winning book, Shattered Peace, was a history of the Cold War. Afterwards the young academic star joined the energy project of the Harvard Business School and wrote the best-seller Energy Future. Following on from there, The Prize, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, is a comprehensive history of one of the commodities that powers the world--oil. Founded in the 19th century, the oil industry began producing kerosene for lamps and progressed to gasoline. Huge personal fortunes arose from it, and whole nations sprung out of the power politics of the oil wells. Yergin's fascinating account sweeps from early robber barons like John D. Rockefeller, to the oil crisis of the 1970s, through to the Gulf War.
Product Description
Pulitzer Prize Winner -- and Now an Epic PBS SeriesThe Prize recounts the panoramic history of oil -- and the struggle for wealth power that has always surrounded oil. This struggle has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, and transformed the destiny of men and nations. The Prize is as much a history of the twentieth century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of this history is enormous -- from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm. The cast extends from wildcatters and rogues to oil tycoons, and from Winston Churchill and Ibn Saud to George Bush and Saddam Hussein. The definitive work on the subject of oil and a major contribution to understanding our century, The Prize is a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement -- and great importance.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 136 more reviews...
 The Necessary Political and Economic Lubricant November 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The recent and tumultuous situation with petroleum pricing, coupled with the obviously baleful effects on the environment of hydrocarbon fuels, combined with rising demands, diminishing supplies, economic turmoil in the world economy and sourcing from the ever-unstable Middle East prompted me to re-read Daniel Yergin's masterpiece, "The Prize".
While everyone has an opinion on petroleum pricing and usage, ranging from simple-minded conspiracy theories to empirical invocations of "market economies", no one outside "the business" can legitimately lay claim to having an informed opinion on the topic without having carefully read this book.
As is often the case in history, there is an annoyingly repetitious flavor to the story. Fluctuations in petroleum supply/demand ratios, wildly variable pricing, toxic waste accumulation, political machinations, corporate manipulation, Cassandra-like warnings of the dire implications of reliance on hydrocarbon-based energy, attempts to formulate national and international strategies...its all been stated, argued and ignored since the 1930s. As US Interior Secretary Harold Ickes caustically remarked during the War, "It is impossible to carry the American people along with you on a program of caution to forestall a threatening position." Yergin noted that, "Prevention, whether it be an ounce or a pound was bad politics..." Of course, the same holds true now, as then.
The insights into the "culture" of the oil magnates as well as those of the governments who sometimes worked with them (whilst simultaneously indicting them for "collusion", as did the US Justice Department); the motives of the Middle Eastern oil producers; the founding of OPEC (largely instigated by a Venezualan with Spartan tastes combined with ecological sympathies) and the re-appearance of the same confusion and mixed motives by virtually the same cast of players who currently occupy the stage are all brilliantly detailed in this book.
As for the writing, Yergin writes in an engaging and interesting style. Of course, there are some tedious sections in this very long book, but it certainly holds the interest of the motivated, non-technical reader.
In summary, this book, while written almost twenty years ago, remains important and timely at the close of the second decade of the 21st century. It is necessary background for understanding the current state of the world economy.
A must-read for everybody October 7, 2008
The Prize is a feast of a book. It is one of my all time favorites, including novels, biographies and the lot. Daniel Yergin, the author, makes a very exciting plot of the history of the oil business, starting in Pennsylvania in 1859.
The best parts, both analytical and epical, is where he writes about the upstream part of the oil business, ie. exploring, finding and producing crude. The story takes us from Pennsylvania, to Texas, Indonesia, Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, Persia, Kuwait and Saudi-Arabia to Alaska.
Yergins main thesis is that oil became a strategic commodity around 1900. Nations and governments want control over crude, because they are unable to conduct wars without it. Therefore they are willing to go to war to secure oil supplies, and availability of oil determined to a certain extent the outcome of WWII.
The book is also a very good account on general world history between 1859 and 1991. Interesting and fun anecdotes flourish, but Yergin is still keeping the analytical banner high. Fantastic book!
Oil and the World September 20, 2008
Daniel Yergin's well-researched and sourced book provides the oil-based context for much of what happened, happens, and will happen in politics and war. A must read for those who want to understand the world in which they live.
Great book, still relevent even today September 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I learned a great deal from this book, from the rise of Standard Oil, it's dissolution, wildcatters, and the rise of the Middle East. I now have a better understanding of the economics of oil. The knowledge this book covers is still applicable today, including Saudi Arabia's continued role in attempting to regulate oil prices, and the risks/rewards of offshore oil drilling, and why too low price of oil is bad (too high is obvious, as we all know with the summer-2008 gasoline prices). It should be required reading for all politicians and also should be read by anyone who voices an opinion (left or right-wing) on energy-related topics.
Highly recommended.
Definitive work on oil exploration and exploitation September 3, 2008
This significant tome is Daniel Yergin's fascinating, 1992 Pulitzer prize-winning account of the personalities, politics, adventures and misadventures behind the evolution of the ruthless global oil business. This authoritative, intelligent and highly entertaining book reports on the past, present and future of the commodity that shapes the world power struggle. Yergin delves knowledgeably into fulcrum events. For example, shortly before World War I, Winston Churchill made the fateful decision to convert British navy's fuel from coal to Iranian oil. This decision set off the modern Western quest for Middle Eastern oil. The world is still feeling its wrenching impact, and Yergin shows how and why. getAbstract finds that this book provides an essential context for understanding today's international conflicts.
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