Oil, God, and Gold: The Story of Aramco and the Saudi Kings [Hardcover]

Anthony Cave Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 1999

Here is the extraordinary tale of what the U.S. State Department once called "the most valuable commercial prize in the history of the planet," the vast oil reserves beneath the sands of the Arabian desert. Using Aramco files never before available to scholars or journalists, dozens of personal interviews, and U.S. and British government documents, Anthony Cave Brown recounts the unceasing diplomatic and corporate maneuvers aimed at obtaining this unimaginable wealth, an ongoing drama that involved such figures as the great warrior-king Ibn Saud, founder of the Saudi dynasty; H. St. John Philby, the British scholar-adventurer who was a chief advisor to the king; the American philanthropist Charles Crane; Winston Churchill; Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and assorted oil-industry executives and engineers across the United States. Played out against a background of war and the turmoil of an ancient culture thrust abruptly into the twentieth century, the struggle to obtain the prize was won b

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Anthony Cave Brown, the author of several well-received books on the history of espionage, here turns his attention to a story as full of intrigue as any spy novel: the rise of Aramco, once the world's leading oil concern. Led by a consortium of American investors, Aramco managed through considerable guile to insert itself in territory tightly controlled by the British--thanks, in part, to the labors of one H. St. John Philby, a British spy (and father of the notorious Soviet double agent Kim Philby) who held great influence in the court of Saudi king Ibn Saud, and who, writes Brown, "was to betray the British government in favor of Standard Oil." The Americans won Saudi favor not only through Philby, but also through an intrepid Chicago-born entrepreneur and diplomat named Charles Crane, who did for Ibn Saud what the British failed to do: Crane built a costly waterworks that brought drinking water into the Saudi interior. (For his part, Philby obtained the monopoly on selling Ford automobiles in the country. In six years, he sold the king 1,450 cars.) The result was a concession to the American concern to what the U.S. State Department once called "the most valuable commercial prize in the history of the planet," namely, the vast oil fields of Arabia; for an initial investment of £100,000, Aramco eventually extracted more than a trillion dollars from the Arabian reserves. The American interest in Saudi and Persian Gulf oil has remained strong ever since, Brown writes--he even calls the Gulf War of 1991 "the Aramco War"-- although the company was nationalized in the mid-1980s. Brown's careful research and vivid prose yield a fine read for anyone interested in contemporary affairs and world history. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

Everything about the story of the American interest in Arabian oil is big. Standard Oil (whose post-Antitrust Act components formed Aramco in 1947 in the largest corporate merger the world had seen) made trillions of dollars over its history, produced millions of barrels of oil daily by the late 1950s and, to a mind-boggling extent, successfully intervened in international politics to protect its interests. Brown's skill in relating the complex relations among the Saudi royal family, the secretive oil executives and the American and British governments is no less impressive. The story begins with how, between the world wars, Standard Oil challenged and?with the help of the same American government that had busted its trust?beat the British Empire in the race for the prize of Arabian oil. Brown hangs this part of his account on the lives and deeds of three men: Ibn Saud, the Arab prince allied with the British in WWI who founded the Saudi dynasty; John D. Rockefeller, the American oil baron; and Harry St. John Philby, a British agent who advised Ibn Saud. (Brown likens Philby to his infamous son, Soviet spy Kim Philby, arguing that his loyalty to Ibn Saud led him to "betray" Britain by advising the king ultimately to favor Standard Oil over the Empire.) Brown brings the reader through the post-WWII transfer of world hegemony from the British Empire to the U.S., explaining the symbiosis of corporate and Saudi politics against the backdrop of the Cold War, the Israeli-Arab conflict and the Iran-Iraq war. It's a great story well told. The only shortcoming is that Brown relies so heavily on Aramco documents that his history is skewed a little too much to the corporate side, relegating geopolitics to a secondary, though still vital, role.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1st Edition, 1st Printing edition (February 26, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395592208
• ISBN-13: 978-0395592205
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #651,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 in Books > History > Middle East > Saudi Arabia

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous!, March 12, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Oil, God, and Gold: The Story of Aramco and the Saudi Kings (Hardcover)

Every history book should be written this well. An insider's view, sweeping in scope, fascinating and well written. Moves easily from minutiae of roughnecks in dusty barracks near the oil fields to high level geopolitics. Fascinating throughout. Buy it even if you have no interest in Saudi or oil; you will by the time you finish this fine book. (Why is it that Brits write history so much better than Americans?)

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New and All-Embracing View of Oil in Saudi Arabia, October 22, 2000

By 

Nestor Sander "rotsen 92" (Modesto, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Oil, God, and Gold: The Story of Aramco and the Saudi Kings (Hardcover)

For those unfamiliar with the Middle East this work may seem daunting in its detailed analyses not only of events but of the background and character of the people involved in them. The author takes full advantage of access to sources not previously used in studies of this kind and presents his findings in an orderly and fluent, easily readable fashion. As a participant in some of the events he describes I can vouch for the authenticity of his accounts of early times. On the other hand he betrays a lack of familiarity with the technical aspects of the oil industry. This does not detract from the value of the work for the general public who even from a quick read will gain an idea of the complex problems that Aramco encountered and overcame with varying success.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are you one of 'em A-rab stiffs?, September 14, 2003

By 

Mike M. (Northridge, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oil, God, and Gold: The Story of Aramco and the Saudi Kings (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating story. A real page turner. I enjoyed it tremendously. It is true the editing is rather sloppy but the crisp writing style and the great story more than overcome it.