Tom Bower has a distinguished reputation as an investigative historian, broadcaster and journalist, and is the author of several ground-breaking books about tycoons, politicians, intelligence, and post-war Europe.
"[Bower's book is] ominous, even prescient, in what it says about
BP's past practices."--LA Times
"A gripping and convincing account of the turbulent story of the
global oil industry . . . the events he covers are scarcely less
dramatic than those described in The Prize, including the ascent of
the oil price to record highs. Bower's book has the advantage of
being scorchingly topical . . . provides the fascinating story
behind the headlines . . . a first-rate account of where the oil
industry is now, and some useful pointers as to where it is
going."--Financial Times (UK)
"A roller-coaster account . . . [Bower] has a real sense of the
drama of deal-making and deal-breaking, of keeping vast
corporations afloat in conditions that are rarely
stable."--Telegraph (UK)
"Bower gets the big strategic judgments right."--The Sunday Times
(London)
"In this penetrating study of the modern petroleum industry,
journalist and historian Bower) portrays the last 30 years as a
time of both obscene profits and white-knuckle perils for the major
oil companies.....his analysis of the industry and its shocking
price swings is a persuasive one that eschews conspiracy theories
and peak oil alarmism to focus on rising demand for reserves that
are plentiful but hard to get at. The result is an illuminating
look at a business whose real workings are more interesting than
the mythology surrounding them."--Publishers Weekly
"Investigative journalist Tom Bower has used the same narrative
approach as Sampson [The Seven Sisters] and Yergin [The Prize] to
bring the industry's story forward from the 1980s to the present
day, and his book bears comparison with theirs . . . the reader is
ushered into a front-row seat, and what follows is often gripping.
However fast-paced, Bower cleverly keeps the action in focus . . .
[he] builds up a brilliant picture . . . [and] achieves
impressively seamless continuity."--The Times Literary Supplement
(London)
"Oil couldn't be a hotter or messier topic, making Bower's
sprawling exploration of its modern history - told through the
perspectives of engineers, traders, an oligarch and industry
players such as BP's John Browne and Exxon's Lee Raymond- all the
more timely."--USA Today
"Sweeping in scope and densely detailed...a rare and highly
illuminating global perspective on the industry over the last two
decades."--The New York Times
"With one of the worst environmental disasters in American history
now troubling the waters and coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, this
monumental history of the oil industry during the past two decades
has much more relevance...This exhaustively researched and
well-written volume covers the whole waterfront of major oil
companies, the people who run them, the roles of politicians and
governments in chasing oil, the traders who have yo-yoed its price,
the wars that have been fueled by competition for it and the role
it continues to play in regional and global instability."--Fort
Worth Star Telegram
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