The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power | 
| Author: Daniel Yergin
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.00
Buy Used: $7.14
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Avg. Customer Rating:  133 reviews
Sales Rank: 1067
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 928
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0671799320
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.272820904
EAN: 9780671799328
ASIN: 0671799320
Publication Date: January 1, 1993
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Tight pages/binding; light edge wear; some pencil underlining/notes.
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Amazon.com
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 128 more reviews...
 Incomparable July 3, 2008
Mr. Yergin undoubtedly deserved the Pulitzer Prize for this masterpiece on the history of oil industry. He succeeded in covering about a century and a half of discoveries and developments providing accurate information on historical events, national and international politics and key players, achieving to write a reference book on the subject.
Certainly no author whomsoever can be impartial - and throughout the reading one may well notice that Mr. Yergin is writing from a North-American standpoint. However, partiality is subtile and does not jeopardise his work's strict conformity to facts. Actually, it is only now and then - as in the case of Mossadegh and Nasser - that one might notice that the author could have stepped forward into a less contained critique of Washington's inertia and refrained from a more stark appraisal of Western European role.
Nonetheless, Mr. Yergin is probably the best historian of the subject, faithful to facts, besides being able to imprint a light and entertaining style into his narrative.
Best History of the Oil Industry June 20, 2008
Daniel Yergin made is his name as an oil industry analyst by writing this book. As far as I am aware, this book is the best history of the oil industry ever written.
It is comprehensive and begins prior to the start of the modern oil industry, discusses the U.S. oil industry when U.S. oil production on U.S. soil was a major player in global oil. It then proceeds to the rise of middle east production, the formation of ARAMCO (Saudi American Oil Company), and winds its way to the modern dominance of the oil and gas fields in and about the Persian Gulf. You may need to check for an updated edition - if there is one - or supplement this book with the history of the oil industry within the last ten years. This supplementation is just a function of when this book was published. The book has not been superceded in its field.
This is required reading for any student of the global oil industry.
 great content but poor product June 7, 2008
Yergin's opus is a compelling read but the plot falls apart in the paperback version - literally! The pages start to separate from the binding before you're 100 pages into your read. If your goal in purchasing a paperback is transportability the loss of entire sections actually makes the book a bit easier to carry around, but don't plan on lending it after you're done.
An Essential Tool For Understanding the Petroleum Industry April 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a third generation oilman, this book, while now dated by about eighteen years, gives the reader one of the best oil and gas history books ever written. It was the last book that my father, a wiildcatter for over forty years, read before his death and he too was amazed how Mr. Yergin was able to take such enormous amount of information and distill it down into a narrative as if one were there during the major events that shaped the petroleum industry. If only the so-called envirnomentalists would lift a finger and read books like this, their credibilty as to the subject matter would rise dramatically. What is striking about this particular history book on the petroleum industry, is how Mr. Yergin does a tremendous job in informing the reader how petroleum actually brought human society into what we now call the "modern age" and how the industry truly affected almost every event over the last 150 years, from scientific advancements to world wars. I would put this book into the category of required reading for anyone entering the oil and gas business right up there with "The Greatest Gamblers" written almost a half century ago by Ruth Sheldon Knowles.
Oil on My Brain April 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I just finished the Prize after 4 months and it was a great read. The chapters on WWII were outstanding. What America wouldn't give to be back in the days of $40 barrel of oil again! I now have a greater understanding of the Middle East and the history of politics there. Highly recommend this well deserving Pulitzer winner.
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