Modern history

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

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

The struggle for wealth and power that has surrounded oil for decades continues to shake the world economy, dictate the outcome of wars, and transform the destiny of men and nations. The Prizeis 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 Prizeis a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement -- and great importance.

Prologue

PART I: THE FOUNDERS

Chapter 1. Oil on the Brain: The Beginning

Chapter 2. “Our Plan”: John D. Rockefeller and the Combination of American Oil

Chapter 3. Competitive Commerce

Chapter 4. The New Century

Chapter 5. The Dragon Slain

Chapter 6. The Oil Wars: The Rise of Royal Dutch, the Fall of Imperial Russia

Chapter 7. “Beer and Skittles” in Persia

Chapter 8. The Fateful Plunge

PART II: THE GLOBAL STRUGGLE

Chapter 9. The Blood of Victory: World War I

Chapter 10. Opening the Door on the Middle East: The Turkish Petroleum Company

Chapter 11. From Shortage to Surplus: The Age of Gasoline

Chapter 12. “The Fight for New Production”

Chapter 13. The Flood

Chapter 14. “Friends”—and Enemies

Chapter 15. The Arabian Concessions: The World That Frank Holmes Made

PART III: WAR AND STRATEGY

Chapter 16. Japan’s Road to War

Chapter 17. Germany’s Formula for War

Chapter 18. Japan’s Achilles’ Heel

Chapter 19. The Allies’War

PART IV: THE HYDROCARBON AGE

Chapter 20. The New Center of Gravity

Chapter 21. The Postwar Petroleum Order

Chapter 22. Fifty-Fifty: The New Deal in Oil

Chapter 23. “Old Mossy” and the Struggle for Iran

Chapter 24. The Suez Crisis

Chapter 25. The Elephants

Chapter 26. OPEC and the Surge Pot

Chapter 27. Hydrocarbon Man

PART V: THE BATTLE FOR WORLD MASTERY

Chapter 28. The Hinge Years: Countries Versus Companies

Chapter 29. The Oil Weapon

Chapter 30. “Bidding for Our Life”

Chapter 31. OPEC’s Imperium

Chapter 32. The Adjustment

Chapter 33. The Second Shock: The Great Panic

Chapter 34. “We’re Going Down”

Chapter 35. Just Another Commodity?

Chapter 36. The Good Sweating: How Low Can It Go?

Chapter 37. Crisis in the Gulf

Epilogue - Chronology

OIL PRICES AND PRODUCTION

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

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