OIL BARON OF THE SOUTHWEST: Edward L. Doheny and the Development of the Petroleum Industry in California and Mexico (Historical Perspectives on Business Enterprise) [Hardcover]

MARTIN ANSELL (Author)

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Given the magnitude of his achievements, both the notable and the dubious, Edward Doheny remains a surprisingly obscure figure in U.S. history. At the start of this century, he had developed every major oil field in Southern California and built a huge oil empire in Mexico; and he was credited with having discovered more oil than any other living person. He was also the major player in the Teapot Dome scandal, which tainted the administration of President Warren G. Harding. Little has been written about Doheny; at his request, his wife burned almost all of his papers after his death. There is Dan La Botz's Edward L. Doheny: Petroleum, Power, and Politics in the United States and Mexico (1991), a work that relied heavily on secondary sources and archives of the U.S. Department of State. But Ansell, a history teacher at Brookhaven College in Dallas, labels La Botz's work the "apotheosis of the negative tradition . . . written from the political left." He sets out to reevaluate Doheny's role in history and rehabilitate his image. David Rouse

Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: Ohio State University Press; 1 edition (February 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814207499
• ISBN-13: 978-0814207499
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,419,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars WRITTEN FROM THE POLITICAL RIGHT, February 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: OIL BARON OF THE SOUTHWEST: Edward L. Doheny and the Development of the Petroleum Industry in California and Mexico (Historical Perspectives on Business Enterprise) (Hardcover)

Martin Ansell has written an intelligent, obviously well researched book on Edward Doheny, but just as he has accused the other biographer of Doheny, Dan La Botz (Edward L. Doheny: Petroleum, Power, and Plitics in the United States and Mexico), of having a negative bias of Doheny as seen from the political left, Mr. Ansell's presumptions about Doheny's honorable nature and neglected status as a major, constructive pioneer of the American West is clearly written from the political right.
After reading both these works, I'm still waiting for a book that has some objectivity in its analysis of the life of Edward Doheny. However, due to Doheny having all his records destroyed after his death, any objective book may be about five pages long.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leaves me looking for more personal information, September 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: OIL BARON OF THE SOUTHWEST: Edward L. Doheny and the Development of the Petroleum Industry in California and Mexico (Historical Perspectives on Business Enterprise) (Hardcover)

Interesting, historical, about a man that left an impact on the oil industry and California. A special interest to me, I am a distant relative. The Three Doheny brothers came from Ireland, moved to MN, had large families. Many of these decendents were brave and adventureous.