Oil, Power, and War: A Dark History

Review of Oil, Power and War If you want to understand the world you inhabit and the challenges it faces, it is difficult to overstate the importance of this book. Oil supplies the global economy with a plethora of essential raw materials, not just energy. Particularly since the beginning of the 20th century the evolution of industrial civilization has been driven by access to oil. But oil and other fossil fuels are one time, finite resources created by evolutionary processes that began more than one billion years ago. Their finite nature has long been understood – and feared – by those who derive wealth or power from control of access to fossil fuels. The random distribution of oil by geological processes essential to its creation is the root cause of the ‘oil wars’ that have plagued Western Civilization since the middle of the 20th century. Auzanneau provides a concise description of oil’s origins, derived from his conversations with Bernard Durand, former director of the geology-geochemistry division of the French Petroleum Institute. He devotes a large part of his book to the “dark history” of oil - “dark” not just in terms of wars and political corruption but also in terms of ‘unknown’ to those of us without a serious scholarly bent or ‘inside’ connections. But perhaps the real strength and importance of this book is its exploration of the consequences of what has been called ‘peak oil’. Prior to the introduction of ‘fracking’ most people understood ‘peak oil’ to mean the end of access to oil. As Auzanneau notes, the world will never run out of oil. But it is running out of access to cheap oil, except – and maybe even including - those few locations endowed by random geological processes with most of the world’s remaining oil reserves. The consequences of ‘peak oil’ understood in this sense (i.e. running out of access to cheap oil) should be of concern to everyone, not just politicians and the oil industry. Much more is at stake than just the price of the gas we use to power our cars! There is so much in this book attempting to do more than just touch on the most important content would assume the proportions of another book. Perhaps the most important takeaway is the urgent need for a ‘shift’ (see The Shift Project) away from the use of oil and other fossil fuels for purposes, for which substitutes can be found, like personal transportation. This country and the world need to do this – and not just because the continued use of oil as a source of energy may soon render the planet uninhabitable. We need a shift for the more basic – and indisputable – reason: we will soon have no choice. You need look no further than the book’s introduction for an overarching explanation of what is at stake: Progress has long been considered a given: a guaranteed occurrence in human societies, a wheel that once set in motion continues to spin, aided only by human intelligence and innovation. But what really sparks or tempers progress? The answer is energy potential—a physical reality measured by its capacity to change the nature of other things around it, to alter the order of the world, or to strengthen it. Each time that we put something in motion, each time that the state of something changes in one way or another, a flow of energy is in play. The economy—the framework around which our industrial society is ordered—and all of the technical progress it mobilizes are no exceptions. In other words, energy is the ultimate universal currency. As Georges Bataille wrote in 1949, “Essentially wealth is energy: Energy is the basis and the end of production.” Without adequate energy sources, ingenuity would be rendered impotent, its fruits out of reach. Progress would not progress. Today, fossil fuels provide four-fifths of the energy we use. (my bold) P.S. For my second pass through this book I purchased the Kindle edition. If you like to highlight, take notes and follow references, it is much easier to do it with the Kindle version of the book. P.P.S. Readers fluent in French might be able to assist with English translation of The Shift Project’s newsletter.

This book is profound, persuasive, and for many Americans, potentially disillusioning. It is a long story beginning in the late nineteenth century, told with exhaustive and persuasive detail, and supported by an infinity of citations. Despite the history book approach, and the fact that it's translation, it is at times surprising lyrical. It is also very critical of the policies and actions of the United States government and oil companies - usually portrayed as indistinguishable - in the Middle Eastern oil producing regions. This retelling from the perspective of a Frenchman of the nation's history and involvement with Saudi Arabia and Iraq will be disturbing for many Americans. And illuminating. Although much of the book would seem a negative portrayal of my country, I would argue that there is little bias in the presentation. It is the detailing of the personal and professional relationships of the Nation's elite presented in close conjunction with descriptions of their conjoined financial interests and global commercial ventures, and the further descriptions of the military and clandestine political support for these ventures, that compelling argue that there was a corruption of both government and free enterprise by the oil men and the political elite. Often the same men it is persuasively argued. Despite this detailing of the uncompromising venality and rapacity of the oil men, and their corrupting influence in geopolitics, the author emphasizes the immense benefits that ensued from accessing and developing this historically unprecedented and currently unequaled source of energy. These guys are the extreme personification of an Adam Smith parable. They were solely concerned with personal gain, and were willing to corrupt the government of the most powerful nation in the world to increase their personal wealth, yet the hydrocarbon power they unleashed dramatically raised living standards and allowed or drove the population explosion of the last century. Although in later chapters the book focuses on issues such and peak oil and global warming, I believe the book's major contribution is as history, particularly to the extent that reading it provides a context for and a greater understanding of current geopolitical issues, rather than as predicition I recommend that anyone who wants to understand how we got here - and I believe that everyone should want to know that - read this book.

excellent

Well packaged and arrived on time. Was as described by seller. Thank You!

This book presents an encyclopedia amount of information on the history past and present on Oil. It is too long IMO and I only got half way through. It does a wonderful job on the early history especially the rise of the oil giants and how they controlled the price of oil. Some of the author"s presentation leaves me wondering if he has an underlying agenda. I would like to add that I have a tremendous interest in the possibility of peak oil. Would recommend this book if you desire to choose this area of interest as it does present almost an overwhelming amount of information.

An excellent book, full of incredibly well-researched information, told in an engaging and thorough manner. This is a book I will certainly be re-reading, and I'm sure I will be gifting copies of it to friends. If you care about the environment, are curious about world history and the trajectory it's followed since the 19th century, and want to understand where our civilization might be headed, read this book. It is absolutely worth the time you spend with it, and I'm so glad this translation has been released.

It's difficult to know what audience this book is intended for. It's a rehash mostly based on secondary sources of well-known history and written in a somewhat dramatic fashion (I attribute this to the French journalistic style of presenting a subject, which can seem over-dramatic in translation). The understanding of geo-politics demonstrated by the author is amateurish at best, and subtitles in chapters like "The Secret Cartel of the Seven Sisters" are a big yawn, and citing chuckleheads like Bob Woodward as authorities on anything undermine whatever case the author is attempting to make. If you're up for a 500-page potted history and you don't know anything about the history of the oil industry and governments in the 20th Century you might enjoy the revisionist approach of this book. While I don't put too much stock in book titles, "Oil, Power and War: A Dark History" seems menacingly portentous, while in fact it's just another quasi-environmentalists tract putatively pointing the way to a post-petroleum economy. Including a Forward by someone with an obscure think tank called the "Post Carbon Institute" that opens quoting the theme music to "The Beverly Hillbillies" is probably one's first clue that the astonishing benefits conferred on humankind by the imaginative exploitation of an abundant natural resource won't be celebrated, while"shock, shock" will be expressed that ruthless businessmen (and they are mostly men) and governments got together to further the interests of big oil. The photograph of a US soldier guarding the Iraq Oil Ministry is, I imagine, meant to support the canard that the Iraq invasion by the US was all about oil, when in fact given a commitment not to totally destroy a petroleum-dependent economy it was important to safeguard what few resources might be available to keep total impoverishment at bay. It's also completely ridiculous that this book is available for US$19.76 on the US Amazon site while Canadians are dunned for C$34.31 for this book. I'm returning it. By the way, the author seems like a very nice chap, so it pains me to be critical.

It's a very political + historical lessons about basics of oil. Author or Journalist of this book is very brilliant one who had just made all event in a chronological order and also before reading this book one must know the middle east crisis, world war 2 specially oil embargo on Japan. If some one lacking in these event and basics of oil, this book will bounce back your head. Good for exam preparation and discussions for those who get in oil politics and oil industry. Though its costly but Worth buying.