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

What a book. I don't really enjoy reading super long and dense history books as they are typically boring and too many facts to digest. However the prize has been written in a way that captures your attention throughout.It's full of insights I certainly didn't realise about the role of oil in politics and war and it's was fascinating to me to have learned all this from this book.It's really a must read if you want to better understand geopolitics and the levers that drive them.

Reading "The Prize" is no easy feat, and it is certainly not your typical Sunday afternoon engagement. But the book's volume is testament both the complexity of the subject with which it is preoccupied as it is to the author's willingness to approach it with sufficient detail to do it justice (and the book's references are a great guide for further reading). After all, the story of oil begins in America almost a century and a half ago, and, in the meantime, fascinates entrepreneurs, politicians, strategists, economists, and, increasingly, consumers who care about the price on the pump and of the heating oil to keep the house warm. To put all this in a single narrative is no small task; and yet Daniel Yergin succeeds admirably, and it is no wonder that he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his effort.What makes "The Prize" a great book is that it is a great read; it is sufficiently attuned to the broader history that it gives the reader a sense of perspective and purpose--it offers a continuous idea of how the part fits in the whole. But Mr. Yergin's talents extend beyond his ability to make sense out of a complicated story; it is refreshing to read his book combine politics and economics in a coherent and understandable fashion; to read him navigate through various historical and political settings, whether that is turn-of-the-century America, conservative Saudi Arabia or revolutionary Iran. And yet the richness of the story is to be found in anecdotes--the brief glimpses which reveal so much in so little space, whether that is insight into a personality or a window into a historical moment.If making sense of a disparate story is the book's chief goal, the need to do so is the book's real significance. Our current preoccupations--whether regarding the price of oil, or the search for alternative energy sources, or the instability of the regions which produce oil--are rather old, about as old as oil itself. In a way, this offers comfort--it is always good to read that previous alarms have proven largely false. But it is also a warning to avoid simplistic ways out--if nothing else, "The Prize" offers a wealth of information which can put oil in a historic context. Reading it will prove not only educational, but it will also help a reader distinguish between the serious and the silly in the public debates on the future of energy in general and oil in particular.

This is the definitive book on the "Age of Oil" and its journey from fruition to modern day. Incredibly well researched and insightful. The Prize describes how this once seemingly useless substance served as a platform for building global economies and increasing human productivity. Oil; money; power ... the terms are synonymous. Rockefeller, Getty, Rothschild, and others became the wealthiest to have ever lived at the time. You must read this book to understand the true nature of oil's impact on our society."""1853: George Bissel visits oil springs in western Pennsylvania.1859: "Colonel" Drake drills first well at Titusville.1861-65: American Civil War.1870: John D. Rockefeller forms Standard Oil Company.1872: South Improvement Company stirs war in the Oil Regions. Rockefeller launches "Our Plan".1873: Baku oil opened to development. Nobel family enters Russian oil business.1882: Thomas Edison demonstrates elec­tricity. Standard Oil Trust formed.1885: Rothschilds enter Russian oil busi­ness. Royal Dutch discovers oil in Suma­tra.1892: Marcus Samuel sends the Murex through the Suez Canal; begin­ning of Shell.1896: Henry Ford builds his first car.1901: William Knox D'Arcy acquires a concession in Persia. Gusher at Spindletop in Texas; be­ginning of Sun, Texaco, Gulf.1902-04: Ida Tarbell's History of Standard Oil Company serialized in McClure's.1903: Wright Brothers' first flight.1904-05: Japan defeats Russia.1905: Revolution of 1905 in Russia; Baku oil fields ablaze. Glenn Pool discovered in Okla­homa.1907: Shell and Royal Dutch combined under Henri Deterding. First drive-in gasoline station opens in St. Louis.1908: Discovery of oil in Persia; leads to Anglo-Persian (later British Pe­troleum).1910: "Golden Lane" discovered in Mex­ico.1911: Agadir Crisis. Churchill becomes First Lord of Admiralty. U.S. Supreme Court orders dissolu­tion of Standard Oil Trust.1913: Burton "cracking" process for refin­ing patented.1914: British government acquires 51 per­cent of Anglo-Persian Oil Com­pany.1914-18: World War I and mechanization of the battlefield.1917: Bolshevik Revolution.1922-28: Negotiation on the Turkish (Iraq) Petroleum Company, leading to the "Red Line Agree­ment." 1922: Los Barroso discovery in Vene­zuela.1924: Teapot Dome scandal erupts.1928: World oil glut leads to meeting at Achnacarry Castle and "As-Is" agreement. French petroleum law.1929: Stock market collapse heralds Great Depression.1930: Dad Joiner's discovery in East Texas.1931: Japan invades Manchuria.1932: Discovery of oil in Bahrain.1932-33: Shah Reza Pahlavi cancels the Anglo-Iranian concession; Anglo-Iranian wins it back.1933: Franklin Roosevelt becomes President of the United States. Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Standard of California wins conces­sion in Saudi Arabia.1934: Gulf and Anglo-Iranian gain joint concession in Kuwait.1935: Mussolini invades Ethiopia; League of Nations fails to impose oil embargo.1936: Hitler remilitarizes Rhineland and begins preparations for war, in­cluding a major synthetic fuels program.1937: Japan begins war in China.1938: Oil discovered in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Mexico nationalizes foreign oil com­panies.1939: World War II begins with German invasion of Poland.1940: Germany overruns Western Europe. United States puts limits on gasoline exports to Japan.1941: Germany invades Soviet Union (June). Japanese takeover of Southern In­dochina leads United States, Britain and Netherlands to em­bargo oil to Japan (July). Japan attacks Pearl Harbor (December).1942: Battle of Midway (July). Battle of El Alamein (September). Battle of Stalingrad (begins Novem­ber).1943: The first "fifty-fifty" deal in Vene­zuela. Allies win Battle of the Atlantic.1944: Normandy landing (June). Patton runs out of gas (August). Battle of Leyte Gulf, Philippines (October).1945: World War II ends with defeat of Germany and Japan.1947: Marshall Plan for Western Europe. Construction begins on Tapline for Saudi oil.1948: Standard of New Jersey (Exxon) and Socony-Vacuum (Mobil) join Standard of California (Chevron) and Texaco in Ar­amco. Israel declares independence.1948-49: Neutral Zone concessions to Amin­oil and J. Paul Getty.1950: Fifty-fifty deal between Aramco and Saudi Arabia.1951: Mossadegh nationalizes AngloIranian in Iran (first postwar oil crisis). New Jersey Turnpike opens. 1951~53 Korean War.1952: First Holiday Inn opens.1953: Mossadegh falls; Shah returns.1954: Iranian Consortium established.1955: Soviet oil export campaign begins. First McDonald's opens in suburban Chicago.1956: Suez Crisis (second postwar oil cri­sis). Oil discovered in Algeria and Ni­geria.1957: European Economic Community es­tablished. Enrico Mattei's deal with the Shah. Japan's Arabian Oil Company wins Neutral Zone offshore conces­sion.1958: Iraqi revolution.1959: Eisenhower imposes import quotas. Arab Petroleum Congress in Cairo. Groningen natural gas field dis­covered in Netherlands. Zelten field discovered in Libya.1960: OPEC founded in Baghdad.1961: Iraqi attempt to swallow Kuwait frustrated by British troops.1965: Vietnam War buildup.1967: Six Day War; Suez Canal closed (third postwar oil crisis).1968: Oil discovered on Alaska's North Slope. Ba'thists seize power in Iraq1969: Qaddafi seizes power in Libya. Oil discovered in the North Sea. Santa Barbara oil spill.1970: Libya "squeezes" oil companies. Earth Day.1971: Tehran Agreement. Shah's Persepolis celebration. Britain withdraws military force from Gulf.1972: Club of Rome study.1973: Yom Kippur War; Arab Oil em­bargo (fourth postwar oil cri­sis). Oil price rises from $2.90 per barrel (September) to $11.65 (Decem­ber). Alaskan pipeline approved. Watergate scandal widens.1974: Arab Embargo ends. Nixon resigns. International Energy Agency (IEA) founded.1975: Automobile fuel efficiency standards established in the United States. First oil comes ashore from North Sea. South Vietnam falls to communists. Saudi, Kuwaiti, and Venezuelan concessions come to an end.1977: North Slope Alaskan oil comes to market. Buildup of Mexican production. Anwar Sadat goes to Israel.1978: Anti-Shah demonstrations, strikes by oil workers in Iran.1979: Shah goes into exile; Ayatollah Khomeini takes power. Three Mile Island nuclear plant ac­cident. Iran takes hostages at U. S. Em­bassy.1979-81: Panic sends oil from $13 to $34 a barrel (fifth postwar oil crisis).1980: Iraq launches war against Iran.1982: OPEC's first quotas.1983: OPEC cuts price to $29. Nymex launches the crude oil fu­tures contract.1985: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of Soviet Union.1986: Oil price collapse. Chernobyl nuclear accident in USSR.1988: Ceasefire in Iran-Iraq War.1989: Exxon Valdez tanker accident off Alaska. Berlin Wall falls; communism col­lapses in Eastern Europe.1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. UN imposes embargo on Iraq; mul­tinational force dispatched to Middle East (sixth postwar oil crisis)."""