Customer Reviews

Oil & Honor: The Texaco-Pennzoil Wars; Inside the $11 Billion Battle for Getty Oil

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Oil and honor is an exhaustive and fascinating history, although it falls short of spectacularly engaging. Petzinger does an excellent job of recounting the facts and context of this chapter of financial history. Ultimately, the book is constrained by the subject -- the minutiae of merger document negotiation and court room hagling pale in comparison to the book's earlier section on the forces and personalities behind the disputed transaction. Nevertheless, the book is an excellent addition to one's financial history library.

Thomas Petzinger's first book, Oil and Honor (1987), relates the same story that won him a Pulitzer Prize nomiation in 1985 as he covered the story of the buy out Getty Oil by Texaco for the Wall Street Journal.

Reading this book one can see why he received the nomination. Petzinger's writing style draws the reader in just like a good novel. It is a cliche to say that the reader will not want to put the book down. However, in this case, that cliche entirely fits. It is a great high drama.

Worked for Getty oil company when this happen. Had a copy of the book but could not find it, Wanted to get another.