Updated Special Message (Posted March 16)
The course will be switched from face-to-face to online for the rest of this term (Spring 2020). Watch this page for changes in the syllabus and further developments.
As you know from the UW president’s memo earlier today (March 16), all classes TO THE END OF THE SEMESTER will be conducted online.
DUE TO THE CURRENT CORONAVIRUS SITUATION, the University of Wyoming has extended spring break by one week (to March 27). Consequently, look for changes on this site.
1. Class for March 23 is cancelled.
2. Class, beginning March 31, likely will have to switch to online. (We can do this–we’re flexible, right?) For the moment, I won’t change the syllabus until we get further information on how this plan will be implemented.
3. Please continue with the assigned readings, until further notice.
4. Keep abreat of forthcoming changes by checking with this website or WyoCourses in coming days.
5. The UW Trustees has announced a meeting for Monday, March 16 concerning expectations for the rest of the term. Watch the UW homepage for further developments. (See updated note above).
History of Oil (HIST 4535/5535)
Spring 2020
Instructor: Dr. Phil Roberts
Time: T, 7 – 9:30 p.m.
Place: Class will meet in the seminar room in the History Building (Room 155).
Office hours: T, 1 p.m.-4 p.m.; and by appointment
E-mail: philr@uwyo.edu
Course Objective: This course will study the history of oil as it became an important source of energy throughout the world, the increasing role in world politics and economics. Along with a narrative approach by world region, we will examine the history through rentier theories, the various “paradox of plenty” themes, “peak oil,” “escaping the resource curse” concepts. Throughout our readings, we will examine recurring themes such as boom-and-bust cycles, colonialism, world systems theory, corporate consolidation, nationalism, and globalization. Additionally, we will study economic and environmental affects of oil/gas exploration, development and use as well as 21st century oil development and public responses to it. Histories of oil tankers, pipelines and refining innovations will be examined.
It should be emphasized that this course will NOT be taught chronologically even though that approach may be taken in the study of various specific geographical areas nor will it concentrate on intricacies of diplomacy, technology or corporate finance..
Course Procedures:
The course will consist of intensive research in the development of oil by geographical area and up to seven final projects, each prepared by student teams. For much of the semester, we will explore theories, technology, evolution of oil development through common readings and assignments. Initially, the class will be divided into groups with each one assigned a particular geographical area with the requirement to develop the discussion of that section and, eventually, present a syllabus and study segment for oil history in that region as the final project for the course.
Throughout the semester, as our teams look at each region, the class will be considering issues such as globalization, world politics, corporate growth, nationalism, and environmental factors as well as world and regional economics. Consequently, students will be expected to stay abreast of current energy developments in the news. Also, in the final sessions of the term, we will analyze how oil has been treated in biography, fiction and film. Throughout the semester, we will continue to develop an understanding of where the oil industry is today, internationally as well as in the U. S. and Wyoming.
Exams: There will be no final exam. Students will be graded on the final team project, comprehension of the readings, and class participation.
Reading Assignment Exercises: To confirm that students understand the main concepts in the various assigned texts, the course will include a brief quiz on each student-directed segment. Additional details will be provided during the introduction on the first day of class.
Grading: Final presentation/project: 50%. Brief quizzes: 5% each. Class participation: 10%. Students are reminded that “participation” is not possible without attending and keeping up with the common readings. Consequently, relentless attendance is expected. At the conclusion of the term, students will be expected to know and understand the major issues in the development of world oil, understand the historical context in which these developments occurred, and demonstrate, both in writing and in oral discussion, the ability to analyze complex questions of oil, diplomacy, technology, nationalism, and colonialism.
Class Conduct: Your class grade will be based on your own work and not “curved” from what others will do in the class. Consequently, it is expected that we will treat one another collegially and with respect. Deviations from this dictum will not be tolerated. Students are reminded that distractions in the form of cell phone calls, individual conversations, and other disruptions are not acceptable and the professor will consider violations while assessing the final grades. The university’s rules on plagiarism and academic dishonesty will be strictly enforced.
Guest Lectures:
The class may hear from at least one distinguished guest during the course of the semester. Exact details will be announced later.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students ONLY:
Readings: Graduate students are expected to read the common readings and then select an additional single region/country/era on which s/he will develop a cogent review of existing literature on oil in that region, explore current developments in the oil industry and draft a “syllabus” for concentrated study on oil in that region. At the end of the term, the student will submit the draft “syllabus” along with an analytical essay on the condition of available specialized historiography.
Common Readings:
This course requires completion of six common readings and additional monographs assigned on an individual basis. The common readings vary in length, but most of them were written for a lay audience and, thus, are neither complex nor complicated. The individual assignments may vary in length and complexity, but ought to balance out among all class members. (List to be provided on initial class meeting).
*Daniel Yergin. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power. (New York: Free Press, reissue, 2008). ISBN-10: 1439110123 ISBN-13: 978-1438110126 (paper) (We will read selected chapters)
*Laton McCartney. The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country. (New York: Random House, 2009). ISBN: 978-0-81297-337-2 (paper)
*Terry Lynn Karl. The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-States. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). ISBN: 978-0520207721 (paper)
*Ken Silverstein. The Secret World of Oil. (Verso, 2014). ISBN: 978-1-78168-137-4
*Macartan Humphreys, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Joseph Stiglitz, eds. Escaping the Resource Curse (Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia: Challenges in Development and Globalization). (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007). 432 pp. ISBN-10: 0231141963 ISBN-13: 978-0231141963 (We will read selected essays).
*Alexandra Fuller. The Legend of Colton H. Bryant. (New York: Penguin, 2008). ISBN-13: 978-0143115373 (paper)
REVISIONS TO THE SYLLABUS
Week of March 31: Presentation by guest lecturer on how people were impacted by the oil booms in Wyoming, by Leslie Waggoner, American Heritage Center, followed by a request for a brief writing piece comparing the “Wyoming experience” with some of the points made by Alison Fleig Frank in the book, Oil Empire, and a brief comparison with points from Karl, Paradox of Plenty.
Week of April 7: Oil in Russia
Common Reading: Ben Mezrich, Once Upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchs—A True Story of Ambition, Wealth, Betrayal, and Murder. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015). JC419 M49 2015b
Week of April 14:: Group 3 and Group 4. Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Middle East
Common Reading: Robert Vitalis. America’s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier.(London: Verso, 2009). HD9576 S334 A738 2007
CANCELLED: Iraq, Indonesia and East Asia. Group 5.
THIS READING IS CANCELLED–We will read about the topic in some online articles written by well-regarded historians. Common Reading: Selections from: John Broich. Blood, Oil and the Axis: The Allied Resistance Against a Fascist State in Iraq andthe Levant, 1941. (Harry Abrams, 2109). ISBN-13: 978-1468313994
CANCELLED: Oil, Colonialism, and War in Africa. Group 6.
This reading is cancelled, to be replaced by online readings summarized the main issues. Common Reading: Luke Patey. The New Kings of Crude: China, India and the Global Struggle for Oil in Sudan and South Sudan. (London: Hurst, 2014). 376 pp. ISBN-10: 1849042942 ISBN-13: 978-1849042949
Week 13: (April 21): Modern Financing of Oil: Futures Markets, Contracts and Deal-making; The Multinationals, the “Majors” and State Control over Oil
Common Reading: Ken Silverstein. The Secret World of Oil. (Verso, 2014). ISBN: 978-1-78168-137-4 HD9560.5 S537 2014; William R. Freudenburg and Robert Gramling. Blowout in the Gulf. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011). ISBN-13: 978-0-26251729-4 (Two additional articles will bring the story up to date). (SELECTIONS FROM ONLINE TO REPLACE THESE TWO READINGS)
Also, Current Issues in Global Oil Exploration and Development
Common Reading: Selections from: Humphreys, Macartan, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Joseph Stiglitz, eds. Escaping the Resource Curse (Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia: Challenges in Development and Globalization). (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007). 432 pp. ISBN-10: 0231141963ISBN-13: 978-0231141963 (selected essays will be made available online))
Week 14: (April 28) 21st Century Energy, Natural Gas, Coal Bed Methane, Fracking. Group 7.
Common Reading: Rone Tempest, Two Elk Sage: How One Man’s Dream Became State, Federal Nightmare. (Links to an external site.) (WyoFile.) https://rone.creatavist.com/twoelksaga#story-cover
Gregory Zuckerman. The Frackers. (New York: Portfolio Reprint Edition, 2014). ISBN: 978-1-59184-709-0 HD9569.8 Z83 2013; Laton McCartney and Rone Tempest, “The Department of the Interior Oil and Gas Scandal and Its Wyoming Roots” (Links to an external site.)
Week 15: (May 5) Oil in Biography, Fiction and Film.
Common Reading: Alexandra Fuller. The Legend of Colton H. Bryant. (New York:Penguin, 2008). ISBN-13: 978-0143115373 (paper) HD7269 P4 F85 2008
Outline of Topics, Meetings and Assignments (subject to revision)
Week 3: (Feb. 11) Economics of Oil in America and Worldwide in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century (and a Quick Look at Petroleum Geology later in the semester)..
Common Reading: Daniel Yergin. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power. (New York: Free Press, reissue, 2008). ISBN-10: 1439110123 ISBN-13: 978-1438110126 (paper) (Read Part I). Later in the semester, we will read other extracts from this book for context). Also, later in the semester, we will consider the below listed sections of the Owen book. (Technical issues are involved so, once they are worked out, we will get the individual assignments for this segment of the readings). For petroleum geology, read your assigned chapter in: Edgar Wesley Owen, Trek of the Oil Finders: A History of Exploration for Petroleum. (Tulsa: American Assoc. of Petroleum Geologists, 1975). On reserve.
Week 4: (Week of Feb. 18) American Oil in Prosperity, Depression, War and Disaster
Common Reading: Laton McCartney. The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country. (New York: Random House, 2009). E785 M38 2008 Read entire book. (This book is available as an e-book through the library website).
Week 5: (Feb. 25) Theories of Oil Development and Oil in Latin America
Common Reading: Terry Lynn Karl. The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-States. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). HD9574 V42 K37 1997
Week 6: Wrap up Petro-States; comparative look at petro-state theories
Week 7: (Mar. 10) Oil in Europe; also Alaska, Group presentation.
Common Reading: Fleig Frank, Oil Empire: Visions of Prosperity in Austrian Galacia.(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005). HD9575 G35 F73 2005
Week 8: (March 17):. NO CLASS (Spring Break)
Week 9: (March 24): Oil in Russia Group 2.
Common Reading: Ben Mezrich, Once Upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchs—A True Story of Ambition, Wealth, Betrayal, and Murder. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015). JC419 M49 2015b
Week 10: (March 31): Group 3 and Group 4. Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Middle East
Also, a guest presentation on the history of Wyoming oil by Leslie Waggoner, American Heritage Center
Common Reading: Robert Vitalis. America’s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier.(London: Verso, 2009). HD9576 S334 A738 2007
Week 11: (April 7) Iraq, Indonesia and East Asia. Group 5.
Common Reading: Selections from: John Broich. Blood, Oil and the Axis: The Allied Resistance Against a Fascist State in Iraq andthe Levant, 1941. (Harry Abrams, 2109). ISBN-13: 978-1468313994
Week 12 (April 14) Oil, Colonialism, and War in Africa. Group 6.
Common Reading: Luke Patey. The New Kings of Crude: China, India and the Global Struggle for Oil in Sudan and South Sudan. (London: Hurst, 2014). 376 pp. ISBN-10: 1849042942 ISBN-13: 978-1849042949
Week 13: (April 21)) Modern Financing of Oil: Futures Markets, Contracts and Deal-making; The Multinationals, the “Majors” and State Control over Oil
Common Reading: Ken Silverstein. The Secret World of Oil. (Verso, 2014). ISBN: 978-1-78168-137-4 HD9560.5 S537 2014; William R. Freudenburg and Robert Gramling. Blowout in the Gulf. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011). ISBN-13: 978-0-26251729-4 (Two additional articles will bring the story up to date).
Also, Current Issues in Global Oil Exploration and Development
Common Reading: Selections from: Humphreys, Macartan, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Joseph Stiglitz, eds. Escaping the Resource Curse (Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia: Challenges in Development and Globalization). (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007). 432 pp. ISBN-10: 0231141963ISBN-13: 978-0231141963 (selected essays)
Week 14: (April 28) 21st Century Energy, Natural Gas, Coal Bed Methane, Fracking. Group 7.
Common Reading: Rone Tempest, Two Elk Sage: How One Man’s Dream Became State, Federal Nightmare. (WyoFile.) https://rone.creatavist.com/twoelksaga#story-cover
Gregory Zuckerman. The Frackers. (New York: Portfolio Reprint Edition, 2014). ISBN: 978-1-59184-709-0 HD9569.8 Z83 2013; Laton McCartney and Rone Tempest, “The Department of the Interior Oil and Gas Scandal and Its Wyoming Roots”
Week 15: (May 5) Oil in Biography, Fiction and Film.
Common Reading: Alexandra Fuller. The Legend of Colton H. Bryant. (New York:Penguin, 2008). ISBN-13: 978-0143115373 (paper) HD7269 P4 F85 2008
We will be viewing excerpts from several films, such as There Will Be Blood, Giant and Hellfighters.
FINAL PROJECT: Due on or before May 9, 5 p.m.
READINGS IN OIL HISTORY
The literature on the history of oil is extensive and growing daily. Many of the works published in the 20th century involved biographies of famous oil pioneers or official histories of large multi-national companies. Over the past decade or two, studies of oil development in various countries have been published along with comparative works.
Abdelrahman Munif, Cities of Salt. (New York: Random House, 1987). ISBN: 978-0394755267 (paper). (Fiction).
Aguilar, Renato and Asa Stenman, Angola: A History of Oil, War and Economic Policy (Goteborg: Routledge, 2001).
Al-Nakib, Farah. Kuwait Transformed: A History of Oil and Urban Life. (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2016).
Ali, Syed. Dubai: Gilded Cage. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010).
Baer, Robert. Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude. (NY: Crown, 2003).
Bamberg, J. H. The History of the British Petroleum Company. Vol. 2: The Anglo-Iranian Years, 1920-1954. (Cambridge, 1994).
Bamberg, J. H. British Petroleum and Global Oil, 1950-1975: The Challenge of Nationalism. (Cambridge, 2000).
Black, Brian. Petrolia: The Landscape of America’s First Oil Boom (Creating the North American Landscape) Canada. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2001).
Black, Brian C. Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History. (Lanham, Md.: Rowan and Littlefield, 2012).
Boue, Juan Carlos. Venezuela: The Political Economy of Oil. (Oxford University Press, 1993).
Brown, Anthony Cave. Oil, God, and Gold: The Story of Aramco and the Saudi Kings. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999). ISBN: 0-395-59220-8 The book has been criticized for a number of careless errors. Brown, who died in 2006, wrote extensively on spies.
Chamberlain, Kathleen P., Under Sacred Ground: A History of Navajo Oil, 1922-1982. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000).
Chernow, Ron, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., (New York: Vintage, 2004).
Clarke, Angela. Bahrain Oil and Development, 1929-1989. (London: Immel Publishing, 1991).
Colgan, Jeff D. Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013). 324 pp. ISBN-10: 1107654971 ISBN-13: 978-1107654976
Coll, Steve. Private Empire: Exxon-Mobil and American Power. (New York: Penguin Books; Reprint edition, 2013). ISBN-10: 0143123548ISBN-13: 978-0143123545 (paper)
Davidson, Christopher M. Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009).
Davis, Margaret Leslie. Dark Side of Fortune: Triumph and Scandal in the Life of Oil Tycoon Edward L. Doheny. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
Deffeyes, Kenneth S. Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert’s Peak. Hill and Wang, 2006). ISBN: 978-0809029570 (paper)
Dekmejian, R. Hrair, and Hovann H. Simonian. Troubled Waters: The Geopolitics of the Caspian Basin. (London: I. B. Tauris, 2001). DK 511 C02D456 2001
Doran, Peter B. Breaking Rockefeller: The Incredible Story of the Ambitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire. (New York: Viking, 2016) ISBN-10: 0525427392 ISBN-13: 978-0525427391
Downey, Morgan. Oil 101. (New York: Wooden Table Press, 2009). 452 pp. ISBN-10: 0982039204 ISBN-13: 978-0982039205
Dunning, Thad. Crude Democracy: Natural Resource Wealth and Political Regimes (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics).(Cambridge University Press, 2008). 350 pp. ISBN-10: 0521730759 ISBN-13: 978-0521730754
Eichenwald, Kurt. Conspiracy of Fools. (New York: Broadway, 2005).
Elm, Mostafa. Oil, Power and Principle: Iran’s Oil Nationalization and Aftermath. (Syracuse Univ Press, 1992).
Epstein, Edward J. Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer. (New York: Random House, 1996).
Ferrier, Ronald W. The History of the British Petroleum Company. Vol. 1: The Developing Years, 1901-1932. (Cambridge, 1982); Vol. 2: The Anglo-Iranian Years, 1928-1954. (Cambridge, 1994).
Franks, Kenny A. and Paul F. Lambert. Early California Oil: A Photographic History, 1865-1940. (College Station:. Texas A&M Press, 1985).
Freudenburg, William R. and Robert Gramling. Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Disaster and the Future of Energy in America. (Boston: MIT Press, 2012). ISBN-13: 978-0262517294 (paper)
Gallegos, Raul. Crude Nation: How Oil Riches Ruined Venezuela. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016). E-book available through Coe Library.
Gerlach, Allen. Indians, Oil and Politics: A Recent History of Ecuador. (Wilmington: Scholarly Res., 2003).
Ghazvinian, John. Untapped: The Struggle for Africa’s Oil. (Orlando: Harcourt, 2007). ISBN 978-0-156033720 (paper)
Goldman, Marshall I. Petrostate: Putin, Power and the New Russia. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Golub, David B. When Oil and Politics Mix: Saudi Oil Policy 1973-85. (Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard, 1985).
Gustafson, Thane. Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia. (Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard Press, 2012). ISBN: ISBN-10: 0674066472ISBN-13: 978-0674066472 (hard cover)
Hammerson, Marc, and John LaMaster. Oil and Gas in Africa: A Legal and Commercial Analysis of the Upstream Industry. (London: Globe Law and Business, 2015). ISBN-13: 978-1909416680
Hawley, Donald. The Trucial States. (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1970).
Heard, David. From Pearls to Oil: How the Oil Industry Came to the United Arab Emirates. (Dubai: Motivate Publishing, 2012). ISBN No: 978 186063 311 9
Heilbrunn, John R. Oil, Democracy, and Development in Africa. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). ISBN-10: 1107049814 ISBN-13: 978-1107049819
Henderson, Edward. This Strange Eventful History: Memoirs of Earlier Days in the UAE and the Sultanate of Oman. (Dubai: Motivate Publishing, 1988).
Herb, Michael. The Wages of Oil: Parliaments and Economic Development in Kuwait and the UAE. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2014).256 pp. ISBN-10: 0801453364 ISBN-13: 978-0801453366
Hertog, Steffen. Princes, Brokers and Bureaucrats: Oil and the State in Saudi Arabia.(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010).
Jones, Walter. Derricks and Determination: Oil Exploration in a Portion of Southwest Wyoming, 1847-1982. (Casper: Mountain States Printing, 2005).
Keeble, John. Out of the Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound. (Cheney: Eastern Washington Univ. Press, 1999). TD427 P4 K38
Kent, Marian.Oil and Empire: British Policy and Mesopotamian Oil, 1900-1920. (New York:Macmillan, 1976).
King, Charles. The Ghost of Freedom: A Historyof the Caucasus. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Kinzer, Stephen. All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. (New York: Wiley, 2003). Details the fascinating story of the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and how that event involved Americans.
Klare, Michael T. Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy. (New York: Henry Holt, 2008).
Kleveman, Lutz. The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia. (Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003).
Konrad, John and Tom Shroder. Fire on the Horizon: The Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster. (New York: HarperCollins, 2011).
Krane, Jim. City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009).
Larson, T. A. Wyoming’s War Years. (Cheyenne: Wyoming Historical Foundation, 1993). Chapters on oil industry in Wyoming during the war.
Leffler, William. Petroleum Refining in Nontechnical Language. 4th ed. (Tulsa: PennWell Corp., 2008). 270 pp. ISBN-10: 1593701586 ISBN-13: 978-1593701581
LeVine, Steve. The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea. (New York: Random House, 2007). ISBN:978-0375506147
Lewis, Peter. Growing Apart: Oil, Politics and Economic Change in Indonesia and Nigeria. (Ann Arbor:University of Michigan Press, 2007).
Limbert, Mandana E. In the Time of Oil: Piety, Memory and Social Life in an Omani Town. (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2010).
Luong, Pauline Jones, and Erika Weinthal. Oil is Not a Curse: Ownership Structure and Institutions in Soviet Successor States.(Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics). (Cambridge University Press, 2010). 446 pp. ISBN-10: 0521148081ISBN-13: 978-0521148085
Mackey, Mike. Black Gold: Patterns in the Development of Wyoming’s Oil Industry. (Powell: Western History Publications, 1997).
Mackie, Bill. The Oilmen: The North Sea Tigers. (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2004).
Marcel, Valerie, Oil Titans: National Oil Companies in the Middle East. (London: Chatham House, 2006).
Margonelli, Lisa. Oil on the Brain: Petroleum’s Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank. (NY: Broadway, 2008).
McAuliffe, Dennis. Bloodland: A Family Story of Blood, Oil and Murder on the Osage Reservation. (Council Oak Books, 1999).
McBeth, B. S., and Alan Knight. Juan Vicente Gomez and the Oil Companies in Venezuela, 1908-1935. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
McPhee, John. Annals of the Former World. (New York: Farrar, Strauss, 1998).
Menoret, Pascal. Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism, and Road Revolt. (Cambridge Middle East Studies). (Cambridge University Press, 2014). 263 pp. ISBN-10: 1107641950ISBN-13: 978-1107641952
Mezrich, Ben. Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, from Wall Street to Dubai. (New York: William Morrow, 2007).
Mitchell, John, ed. The New Economy of Oil: Impacts on Business, Geopolitics and Society. (London: Earthscan Publications, 2001).
Nussimbaum, Liv (Essad Bey). Blood and Oil in the Orient. (London: Nash and Grayson, 1931). This unusual book was written by Nussimbaum, a refugee from Baku, while he was living in exile.
Obi, Cyril and Siri Aas Rustad. Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta: Managing the Complex Politics of Petro-Violence. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).
Olien, Roger, and Diana Davids Olien. Oil and Ideology: The Cultural Creation of the American Petroleum Industry. (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1999).
Omoweh, Daniel A. Shell Development Company, the State and Underdevelopment of Nigeria’s Niger Delta: A Study in Environmental Degradation. (Trenton, N. J.: Africa World Press, 2005).
Ovadia, Jesse. The Petro-Developmental State in Africa: Making Oil Work in Angola, Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea. (London: Hurst, 2016).
Painter, David H. Private Power and Public Policy: Multinational Oil Companies and U. S. Foreign Policy, 1941-1954. (London: I. B. Tauris and Co., 1986).
Parra, Francisco. Oil Politics: A Modern History of Petroleum. (London: I. B. Tauris, 2004).
Patey, Luke. The New Kings of Crude: China, India and the Global Struggle for Oil in Sudan and South Sudan. (London: Hurst, 2014). 376 pp. ISBN-10: 1849042942 ISBN-13: 978-1849042949
Philip, George. Oil and Politics in Latin America: Nationalist Movements and State Companies. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Pratt, Joseph A., Tyler Priest and Christopher J. Castaneda. Offshore Pioneers: Brown and Root and the History of Offshore Oil and Gas. (Gulf Professional Publishing, 1997).
Prendergast, John and International Crisis Group. God, Oil and Country: Changing the Logic of War in Sudan. (Report 39, 2002). (Online update, 17 Aug. 2019).
Reiss, Tom. The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life. (New York: Random House, 2005). Interesting biography of Nussimbaum (above) who wrote, among other works, the Azeri fiction classic, Ali and Nino. The book provides interesting insights on oil in Baku and the people who developed the industry there.
Roberts, Adam. The Wonga Coup: Guns, Thugs, and a Ruthless Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa. (New York: PublicAffairs, 2007). ISBN-10: 1586485008 ISBN-13: 978-1586485009
Roberts, Harold. Salt Creek, Wyoming: The Story of a Great Oilfield. (Denver: Midwest Oil Co., 1956).
Roberts, Paul. The End of Oil. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004).
Ross, Michael L. The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations. (Princeton University Press, 2013). 312 pp. ISBN-10: 0691159637 ISBN-13: 978-0691159638
Santiago, Myrna. The Ecology of Oil: Environment, Labor and the Mexican Revolution, 1900-1938. (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Sernovitz, Gary. The Green and the Black: The Complete Story of the Shale Revolution, the Fight over Fracking and the Future of Energy.(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016).
Shah, Sonia. Crude: The Story of Oil. (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004).
Simmons, Matthew R., Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. (New York: Wiley, 2005).
Sinclair, Upton. Oil! A Novel. (New York: Boni, 1927; Penguin edition, 2007). The novel by the famous muckraking writer incorporates real people and events into the plot. It was the basis for a popular film, There Will Be Blood.
Siollum, Max. Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria’s Military Coup Culture, 1966-1976.(New York: Algora Publishing, 2009). 268 pp.ISBN-10: 0875867081 ISBN-13: 978-0875867083
Soares de Oliveira, Ricardo. Oil and Politics in the Gulf of Guinea. (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2007).
Spence, Hartzell. Portrait in Oil: How the Ohio Oil Company Grew to Be Marathon. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962).
Steffy, Loren C. Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011).
Stegner, Wallace. Discovery!: The Search of Arabian Oil. (Beirut: Middle East Export Press, 1971; 2d ed., Vista, Calif.: Selwa Press, 2007). Yes, this is the work of the well-known Western writer. He was a professor at Stanford when he accepted the contract to write the book after spending two weeks in Saudi Arabia in the middle 1950s.
Stratton, David. Tempest over Teapot Dome: The Story of Albert B. Fall. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998).
Tarbell, Ida. The History of Standard Oil. (Reprint, New York: Harper and Row, 1966). A muckraking classic.
Termeer, Chris. Fundamentals of Investing in Oil and Gas. (Chris Termeer Publishing, 2013). 320 pp. ISBN-10: 098904341X ISBN-13: 978-0989043410
Tinker Sales, Miguel. The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture and Society in Venezuela. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009).
Tolf, Robert W. The Russian Rockefellers: The Saga of the Nobel Family and the Russian Oil Industry. (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1976).
Tsalik, Svetlana, and Anya Schiffrin, eds. Covering Oil: A Reporter’s Guide to Energy and Development. (New York: Open Society Institute, 2005). ISBN: 978-1-89138-545-2 (paper) The manual is criticized by some in the petroleum industry as a product of environmental extremists.
Tygiel, Jules. The Great Los Angeles Oil Swindle: Oil, Stocks and Scandal During the Roaring Twenties. (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1994).
Van der Leeuw, Charles, Oil and Gas in the Caucasus & Caspian: A History. (London:.Palgrave Macmillan, 2000).
Victor, David G., David R. Hults and Mark C. Thurber, (eds.) Oil and Governance: State-Owned Enterprises and the World Energy Supply. (Cambridge University Press, 2014).1,036 pp. ISBN-10: 1107438969 ISBN-13: 978-1107438965
Vosti, Stephen A., and Thomas Reardon. The Libyan Oil Industry. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1980).
Wald, Ellen R. Saudi Inc.: The Arabian Kingdom’s Pursuit of Power and Profit. (Pegasus Books, 2018).
Weinberg, Steve. Taking on the Trust of Ida Tarbell: The Epic Battle and John D. Rockefeller. (New York: W. W. Norton, 2008).
Wilson, Terry P. The Underground Reservation: Osage Oil. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985).
Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power. (New York: Simon/Schuster, 1991) ISBN: 978-0671799328 (paper)
Yergin, Daniel. The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World. (New York: Penquin, rev. ed., 2012). ISBN: 978-0-14-312194-7 (paper)
Zuckerman, Gregory. The Frackers. (Portfolio Trade Reprint edition, 2014).ISBN-10: 1591847095 ISBN-13: 978-1591847090 (paper).
ARTICLE AND SPECIAL ISSUE:
Elkind, Susan S. “Black Gold and the Beach; Offshore Oil, Beaches and Federal Power in Southern California,” Journal of the West 44 (Winter 2005), pp. 8-17.
Journal of American History. Special Issue: Oil in American History. 99/1 (June 2012)