Matthieu Auzanneau is the director of The Shift Project, a European
think tank focusing on energy transition and the resources required
to make the shift to an economy free from fossil fuel dependence,
and also from greenhouse gas emissions. Previously he was a
journalist, based in France, and mostly writing for Le Monde. He
continues to write his Le Monde blog, Oil Man, which he describes
as “a chronicle of the beginning of the end of petroleum.” The
original French edition of this book, Or Noir: La grande histoire
du pétrole, was awarded the Special Prize of the French Association
of Energy Economists in 2016.
Richard Heinberg is Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute. He
is the author of several influential books on resource depletion
including Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century Of Declines.
"In his scholarly but impassioned book, Matthieu Auzanneau provides
a wide-ranging account of the effect oil has had on the minutiae of
daily life and the grandest geopolitical
narratives.”—Geographical
“Beautifully written and marvelously translated, Oil, Power,
and War provides a detailed history of oil’s impact on
economic and technical advances—and, in turn, their impact on
oil—over the past century. Extending its narrative through the
events of early 2018, it offers a profound new understanding of
oil’s role in war and peace, growth and stagnation; and it
casts new light on the foundations of national power and
the challenge that lies ahead. A terrific education and an
engrossing read.”—Dennis Meadows, coauthor of The Limits to
Growth
“The definitive history of the rise and eventual fall of oil,
brilliantly told. Auzanneau illuminates the history of our time
driven by cheap oil and the persistent search for more at all
costs. Insightful, authoritative, and essential reading. A
dazzling and wise book.”—David Orr, author of Dangerous Years; Paul
Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and
Politics, Oberlin College
“Matthieu Auzanneau’s ambitious new history of oil is a must read
for anyone intrigued by the instrumental role of energy in the ebb
and flow of modern civilization. This is a richly documented and
beautifully written book, which tells a story that has not been
fully told—until now. Auzanneau masterfully reveals the vast extent
to which the arteries of today’s politics, economics, and culture
have been indelibly shaped by the rise—and decline—of the world’s
most abundant fossil fuel. In years to come, historians will refer
back to Auzanneau’s work as a definitive guide to the real role of
oil in some of the most pivotal events in world history.”—Nafeez
Ahmed, editor of INSURGE intelligence; visiting research fellow at
the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University
“Auzanneau’s Oil, Power, and War is a fascinating and excellent
book. It sets out in detail the extraordinary story of oil’s
discovery, production, pricing, and control, and throws light on
the fears, misapprehensions, power plays, and conflicts that our
addiction to this cheap and flexible form of energy has engendered.
Auzanneau is particularly good at explaining the importance of oil
in the sustenance of modern society, and therefore why the coming
constraint to the global oil supply—caused by the current
resource-limited plateau (and soon decline) in the global
production of conventional oil—is likely to be so difficult.
Hopefully lessons learned from our past mistakes, laid out so well
in this book, can help guide us through the oil challenges that lie
ahead.”—R. W. Bentley, editor of The Oil Age; author of
Introduction to Peak Oil
“Matthieu Auzanneau’s book is a must for anyone who wants to
understand the modern world. Our consumer society is based on cheap
energy. Thus if you want to know the sources of the world’s current
wealth and how our economy is likely to evolve in the future, you
must study the history of world oil since 1859. This book tells
that story more fully, fairly, accurately, and entertainingly than
any other to date. Indeed, previous accounts of the history of oil
are now effectively obsolete.”—Jean Laherrère, petroleum engineer;
president of ASPO France
“An absolutely great book, and a nearly unbelievable summary of the
history of oil. But this is not just the story of oil, it is also
the story of humankind during the past two centuries or so, and it
shows how almost everything that happened during those centuries
links back to oil. Auzanneau presents a treasure trove of
information not available anywhere else—at least not in a
well-organized and critical form, as most books written on this
subject are sponsored or supported, one way or another, by the
fossil-fuel industry. Did you know that Mussolini was lured into
his disastrous Ethiopian campaign by hopes of finding oil there?
Did you know that the British won the Battle of Britain partly
because the fuel of their Spitfires had a higher octane number than
that of the German Messerschmitts? Did you know that the Marshall
Plan to rebuild the European economies was based on the idea of
replacing Europe’s dependence on American oil with a dependence on
US-controlled Middle East oil? There’s all this and much more in
Oil, Power, and War, and the story of oil and humankind is not yet
concluded. In the future it will be mostly about getting rid of oil
before oil gets rid of us.”—Ugo Bardi, author of Extracted
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