Free Kindle The Prize: The Epic Quest For Oil, Money And Power ebooks Download
Written by the author of "Shattered Peace" and "Energy Future", this book brings to life the tycoons, wildcatters, monopolists, regulators, presidents, generals and sheiks whose struggle for oil has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, transformed the destiny of Britain and the world and profoundly changed all our lives. Beginning with the first oil well of the 1850s and continuing up to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, it is a story of greed, gumption nad ingenuity, all in pursuit of "the prize" - worldwide economic, military and political mastery through the control of oil. The book includes the story of Shell Oil, a company forged in defiance of the Standard Oil monopoly by an upstart London trader, using Rothchild connections, Russian oil and Dutch petrolium concession in the East Indies. The central strategic role of oil in both world wars - from the decisive 4-knot-per-hour advantage of oil-burning ships in World War I to Rommel's stalled tank advance at El Alamein in War II (he literally ran out of petrol) The underground battle to wind the greatest prize of all - the Saudi oil concession. The inside story of the discovery of North Sea Oil and its crucial role in undermining the OPEC monopoly.
Hardcover: 912 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (January 15, 1991)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0671502484
ISBN-13: 978-0671502485
Product Dimensions: 6 x 2 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (448 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #43,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #10 in Books > Business & Money > Industries > Energy & Mining > Oil & Energy #689 in Books > Business & Money > Economics #1057 in Books > History > Military
The Prize is one of the best books I've ever read. I wish I could give it a couple of bonus stars in my rating here.You'd really be selling this book short to think of it just as a history of oil, the oil business, and oil politics in the middle east. Even that would have been an ambitious book but Yergin makes it so much more. It honestly is a thorough history of the entire 20th century (sans the 90s) viewed through the perspective of the oil industry.As each chapter, era, decade, and war unfolds in Yergin's story, you'll gain a much better understanding of the roots of many of the US public's stances on big business, anti-trust legislation, and other pivotal issues of the last 100 years. You'll see how pivotal energy resources were in shaping the planning and rationale for 2 world wars and how the ready availability or lack of oil played as much of a role in winning and losing those wars as did battlefield strategies and the valor of the millions of soldiers involved. You'll see the role oil and energy played in the final collapse of the great imperial powers.Probably most relevant to 2007, the lessons Yergin teaches about middle east history, the changing power roles the evolved in the last 50-60 years as the power shifted from the oil companies to the oil producing countries. Tracing the roots of nationalization of oil production in Mexico and Venezuela is a great stepping stone to understanding out current relationship with Venezuela but it also properly frames the story of the origins of OPEC and OPEC policies.
My interest in Daniel Yergin's "The Prize" was piqued earlier in the year, when energy, not terrorism, was the most pressing domestic problem. For an economy that had gotten so caught up with the intangibles, with over-hyped, un-real products (haven't we all had enough of "e-business solutions?"), it was refreshing to study an industry dealing with a very tangible product whose supply is so essential to the survival of our economy itself."The Prize" traces the history of oil from its humble, entrepreneurial beginnings in the hillsides of western Pennsylvania, to the shrewd domination of the industry by John D. Rockefeller, to the breakup of Standard Oil, and through the discovery of oil in the farthest flung corners of the globe. Part of Yergin's history is something of a tragedy: the gradual seizure of oil from the voyagers who discovered it by national governments who were able to use their seizures to threaten the West during the 1973 oil shock and beyond. In this one very big instance, third world governments really did take on multinational corporations -- and defeated them.Yergin chronicles how oil went from a freewheeling business of refiners and speculators to an instrument of great geopolitical importance, one where nation-states played at least as great a role in shaping the industry as the oil companies did. In this transition, anything could -- and did -- happen. Rock bottom prices threatened the survival of oil producers one year, and sky-high prices forced drastic changes in consumer behavior the next (indeed, "The Prize" does give one a crystal-clear view of the price mechanism). Nightmare scenarios involving the political manipulation of oil did indeed come to pass in 1973, in 1979, and during the Gulf War.
...'Hydrocarbon Man' rocks on. 'Rock Oil' and the 'Age of Oil' are two descriptive phrases that Yergin uses to 'bookend' his epic story - 'The Prize'. He starts with a vignette about how rock oil - a black, sticky substance found in the backwoods of northwest Pennsylvania and used as a folk medicine came to be made into an illuminant (kerosene); one which quickly supplanted whale oil, camphene and 'town gas' (a distillate of coal) as the preferred means of lighting one's home. Yergin concludes with the prospects for the future of us -'hydrocarbon man' as we continue with our dependancy on oil.From the opening pages it is clear that Yergin is an authority on the subject. We have not travelled more than 10 years along the 150 year history of oil and yet we have already learnt it's origins, it's ancient and alternate uses, the products it was competing with, and we have met some of the early inventors, entrepreneur's and explorers.There are three themes that Yergin develops throughout the book. Firstly, the story of oil is the story of capitalism and modern business. The province of Fortune 500 companies, multinationals and the underpinning of wealth in the industrialized west. Certainly, from as early as the late 19th Century, with the emergence of Standard Oil as the first multinational company (a subject Yergin devotes a fair amount of time to),- it's hard to refute this claim. Yergin does recognize that the late 20th Century was less oil lubricated and more computer chip driven, and it's obvious to all of us that this trend will only intensify in this century. Indeed from the time the first edition of 'The Prize' was published (just before the Gulf War) and even since this edition came out in 1993 -things have changed quite a bit economically.
Oil Painting: Learn Oil Painting FAST! Learn the Basics of Oil Painting In No Time (Oil Painting Tutorial, Oil Painting Books, Oil Painting For Beginners, Oil Painting Course, Oil Painting) The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power Money: Saving Money: The Top 100 Best Ways To Make Money & Save Money: 2 books in 1: Making Money & Saving Money (Personal Finance, Making Money, Save Money, Wealth Building, Money) Essential Oils for a Clean and Healthy Home: 200+ Amazing Household Uses for Tea Tree Oil, Peppermint Oil, Lavender Oil, and More Personal Finance: Budgeting and Saving Money (FREE Bonuses Included) (Finance, Personal Finance, Budget, Budgeting, Budgeting Money, Save Money, Saving Money, Money) Money: Saving Money: Success: Get More Money & Success In Your Life Now!: 3 in 1 Box Set: Money Making Strategies, Saving Money Strategies & World's Best ... Tips for Personal Finance & Life Success) Money: How to earn money with : Earn $5000 per Week Part Time using the power of Arbitrage with Liquidation Products on (How to make money ... on , How to make money with ) Beginning Power BI with Excel 2013: Self-Service Business Intelligence Using Power Pivot, Power View, Power Query, and Power Map Power Pivot and Power BI: The Excel User's Guide to DAX, Power Query, Power BI & Power Pivot in Excel 2010-2016 Money Management Tips: Control Money Don't Let It Control You (Budgeting your money, How to save money tips, Get out of debt fast, Live cheap, Debt free, Spend less) How to Hide Money During a Divorce: How to Hide Assets, How to Hide Money From Husband, How to Hide Money From Creditors, How to Hide Money During Bankruptcy) Global Supply Chains: Evaluating Regions on an EPIC Framework - Economy, Politics, Infrastructure, and Competence: "EPIC" Structure - Economy, Politics, Infrastructure, and Competence Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Old Republic Volume 1 (Epic Collection: Star Wars Legends) Star Wars Epic Collection: Rise of the Sith Vol. 1 (Epic Collection: Star Wars) Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The New Republic Volume 1 (Epic Collection: Star Wars) Coconut Oil and Apple Cider Vinegar Handbook: Use Coconut Oil and Apple Cider Vinegar for Healing, Curing, Beauty, and Glowing Radiant Skin Peak Oil and the Second Great Depression (2010-2030): A Survival Guide for Investors and Savers After Peak Oil The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War
