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Daniel Yergin

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power Paperback – Illustrated, December 23, 2008

by Daniel Yergin (Author)

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and hailed as “the best history of oil ever written” by Business Week, Daniel Yergin’s “spellbinding…irresistible” (The New York Times) account of the global pursuit of oil, money, and power addresses the ongoing energy crisis.

Now with an epilogue that speaks directly to the current energy crisis, The Prize recounts the panoramic history of the world’s most important resource—oil. Daniel Yergin’s timeless book chronicles the struggle for wealth and power that has surrounded oil for decades and that continues to fuel global rivalries, shake the world economy, and transform the destiny of men and nations. This updated edition categorically proves the unwavering significance of oil throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first by tracing economic and political clashes over precious “black gold.”

With his far-reaching insight and in-depth research, Yergin is uniquely positioned to address the present battle over energy which undoubtedly ranks as one of the most vital issues of our time. The canvas of his narrative history is enormous—from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Operation Desert Storm, and both the Iraq War and current climate change. The definitive work on the subject of oil, The Prize is a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement, and great value—crucial to our understanding of world politics and the economy today—and tomorrow.

Print length

928 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Free Press
Publication date

December 23, 2008
Dimensions

6.13 x 1.6 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1439110123
ISBN-13

978-1439110126
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Spellbinding...irresistible...monumental...must be read to understand the first thing about the role of oil in modern history." -- The New York Times

"A masterly narrative...The Prize portrays the interweaving of national and corporate interests, the conflicts and stratagems, the miscalculations, the follies, and the ironies." -- James Schlesinger, former U.S. Secretary of Defense and U.S. Secretary of Energy

"Splendid and epic history of oil.... The story is brilliantly told...with its remarkable cast of characters." -- The Wall Street Journal

"Impassioned and riveting...only in the great epics of Homer will readers regularly run into a comparable string of larger-than-life swashbucklers and statesmen, heroes and villains." -- San Francisco Examiner

About the Author

Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and the Global Energy Expert for the CNBC business news network, is a highly respected authority on energy, international politics, and economics. Dr. Yergin received the Pulitzer Prize for the number one bestseller The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, which was also made into an eight-hour PBS/BBC series seen by 20 million people in the United States. The book has been translated into 12 languages. It also received the Eccles Prize for best book on an economic subject for a general audience.

Of Dr. Yergin’s subsequent book, Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy, the Wall Street Journal said: “No one could ask for a better account of the world’s political and economic destiny since World War II.” This book has been translated into 13 languages and Dr. Yergin led the team that turned it into a six-hour PBS/BBC documentary — the major PBS television series on globalization. The series received three Emmy nominations, a CINE Golden Eagle Award and the New York Festival’s Gold World Medal for best documentary. Dr. Yergin’s other books include Shattered Peace, an award-winning history of the origins of the Cold War, Russia 2010 and What It Means for the World (with Thane Gustafson), and Energy Future: The Report of the Energy Project at the Harvard Business School, which he edited with Robert Stobaugh.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Free Press; Reissue edition (December 23, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 928 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1439110123
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1439110126
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.65 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.13 x 1.6 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #41,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Petroleum Engineering
- #11 in Oil & Energy Industry (Books)
- #26 in International Diplomacy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
1,124 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		78%
4 star		13%
3 star		6%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Ritesh Laud

Excellent "double duty" history of the oil and gas industry through 1991

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is a very well-written and neutral history of the oil and gas industry worldwide, from its beginnings in the U.S. in the 1850s up through the end of the Gulf War in 1991. I read this over perhaps eight months a couple years ago, having had been in the industry for about 18 years. I wish I'd read it when I first started working; I think my appreciation of my particular engineering field and its place in the context of the industry would've been greatly enhanced.

The Prize doubles as both an extremely interesting story and a superb reference thanks to a comprehensive index. My only complaint is that the regional maps are generally sub-par and often don't indicate half the points of interest mentioned in the text. This is merely an annoyance though and doesn't detract much from the experience.

I don't have much else to add. The Prize is written for the layman, so anyone with even a passing interest in the industry ought to check it out. I'm most of the way through the sequel The Quest, which covers the next twenty years or so of history though in quite a different manner and with generally poorer writing in my opinion. The Prize is a must buy!

28 people found this helpful

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getbblg

Truly about the race... the human race!!

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

This one book has helped me view current events from a much more sophisticated perspective than before. Although oil is the connective tissue throughout, I learned immensely about World history, human psychology, war, the Middle East, imperialism, colonialism, and so many thing in between (e.g., 42 Gallons in a barrel of crude!). Without a hint of exageration, I learned more from this book than any other I can recall (less The Bible, and maybe The Brothers Karamazov which I just started reading!). It took me ONE YEAR to get it read (not sure why), but I committed to finishing it before starting any other read, and that I did. I am immensely thankful to the author for putting this massive piece together - truly a feat, if you ask me. What will come once this infamous resource evolves (or comes to an end)? A couple of centuries and so much.... everything. Phenomenal read, highly recommended!!!

11 people found this helpful

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J. Sweeney

Comprehensive, well-researched, but a bit boring

Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

This book came so highly recommended, especially from friends in the investment industry. I am trying to get through it, but I am not enjoying it yet. The writing is uneven, rambling about for pages then gushing with excitement. I'd be impressed (but annoyed) if that seemed intentional by the author to mirror the work of exploring for and sometimes striking oil, but I think it. is just bad editing. It's a bummer because the content is interesting. I wish this tome were edited down by a more engaging and consistent storyteller. It's missing the quality you might find in a book like Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything", or even one of Isaacson's biographies.
That said, I don't know a better book on the oil industry in particular or an industry in general, So this might just be very hard to write well for the general reader, and perhaps I am expecting too much.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Emily L. Ferguson

Long, essential study of the political history of petroleum

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

One of the core studies of the role oil plays in world history. Very readable, very frightening. This older book from the 1980s does not address climate impacts, or the utter failure of the petroleum industry to take responsibility for its complete lack of social conscience, but that's not why you should read this book.

Read this book for an understanding of how we got through the first 100 years of petroleum dependency.

3 people found this helpful

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K. H.

The Age of Oil

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2012

Verified Purchase

This is the definitive book on the "Age of Oil" and its journey from fruition to modern day. Incredibly well researched and insightful. The Prize describes how this once seemingly useless substance served as a platform for building global economies and increasing human productivity. Oil; money; power ... the terms are synonymous. Rockefeller, Getty, Rothschild, and others became the wealthiest to have ever lived at the time. You must read this book to understand the true nature of oil's impact on our society.

"""
1853: George Bissel visits oil springs in western Pennsylvania.
1859: "Colonel" Drake drills first well at Titusville.
1861-65: American Civil War.
1870: John D. Rockefeller forms Standard Oil Company.
1872: South Improvement Company stirs war in the Oil Regions. Rockefeller launches "Our Plan".
1873: Baku oil opened to development. Nobel family enters Russian oil business.
1882: Thomas Edison demonstrates electricity. Standard Oil Trust formed.
1885: Rothschilds enter Russian oil business. Royal Dutch discovers oil in Sumatra.
1892: Marcus Samuel sends the Murex through the Suez Canal; beginning of Shell.
1896: Henry Ford builds his first car.
1901: William Knox D'Arcy acquires a concession in Persia. Gusher at Spindletop in Texas; beginning of Sun, Texaco, Gulf.
1902-04: Ida Tarbell's History of Standard Oil Company serialized in McClure's.
1903: Wright Brothers' first flight.
1904-05: Japan defeats Russia.
1905: Revolution of 1905 in Russia; Baku oil fields ablaze. Glenn Pool discovered in Oklahoma.
1907: Shell and Royal Dutch combined under Henri Deterding. First drive-in gasoline station opens in St. Louis.
1908: Discovery of oil in Persia; leads to Anglo-Persian (later British Petroleum).
1910: "Golden Lane" discovered in Mexico.
1911: Agadir Crisis. Churchill becomes First Lord of Admiralty. U.S. Supreme Court orders dissolution of Standard Oil Trust.
1913: Burton "cracking" process for refining patented.
1914: British government acquires 51 percent of Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
1914-18: World War I and mechanization of the battlefield.
1917: Bolshevik Revolution.
1922-28: Negotiation on the Turkish (Iraq) Petroleum Company, leading to the "Red Line Agreement." 1922: Los Barroso discovery in Venezuela.
1924: Teapot Dome scandal erupts.
1928: World oil glut leads to meeting at Achnacarry Castle and "As-Is" agreement. French petroleum law.
1929: Stock market collapse heralds Great Depression.
1930: Dad Joiner's discovery in East Texas.
1931: Japan invades Manchuria.
1932: Discovery of oil in Bahrain.
1932-33: Shah Reza Pahlavi cancels the Anglo-Iranian concession; Anglo-Iranian wins it back.
1933: Franklin Roosevelt becomes President of the United States. Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Standard of California wins concession in Saudi Arabia.
1934: Gulf and Anglo-Iranian gain joint concession in Kuwait.
1935: Mussolini invades Ethiopia; League of Nations fails to impose oil embargo.
1936: Hitler remilitarizes Rhineland and begins preparations for war, including a major synthetic fuels program.
1937: Japan begins war in China.
1938: Oil discovered in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Mexico nationalizes foreign oil companies.
1939: World War II begins with German invasion of Poland.
1940: Germany overruns Western Europe. United States puts limits on gasoline exports to Japan.
1941: Germany invades Soviet Union (June). Japanese takeover of Southern Indochina leads United States, Britain and Netherlands to embargo oil to Japan (July). Japan attacks Pearl Harbor (December).
1942: Battle of Midway (July). Battle of El Alamein (September). Battle of Stalingrad (begins November).
1943: The first "fifty-fifty" deal in Venezuela. Allies win Battle of the Atlantic.
1944: Normandy landing (June). Patton runs out of gas (August). Battle of Leyte Gulf, Philippines (October).
1945: World War II ends with defeat of Germany and Japan.
1947: Marshall Plan for Western Europe. Construction begins on Tapline for Saudi oil.
1948: Standard of New Jersey (Exxon) and Socony-Vacuum (Mobil) join Standard of California (Chevron) and Texaco in Aramco. Israel declares independence.
1948-49: Neutral Zone concessions to Aminoil and J. Paul Getty.
1950: Fifty-fifty deal between Aramco and Saudi Arabia.
1951: Mossadegh nationalizes AngloIranian in Iran (first postwar oil crisis). New Jersey Turnpike opens. 1951~53 Korean War.
1952: First Holiday Inn opens.
1953: Mossadegh falls; Shah returns.
1954: Iranian Consortium established.
1955: Soviet oil export campaign begins. First McDonald's opens in suburban Chicago.
1956: Suez Crisis (second postwar oil crisis). Oil discovered in Algeria and Nigeria.
1957: European Economic Community established. Enrico Mattei's deal with the Shah. Japan's Arabian Oil Company wins Neutral Zone offshore concession.
1958: Iraqi revolution.
1959: Eisenhower imposes import quotas. Arab Petroleum Congress in Cairo. Groningen natural gas field discovered in Netherlands. Zelten field discovered in Libya.
1960: OPEC founded in Baghdad.
1961: Iraqi attempt to swallow Kuwait frustrated by British troops.
1965: Vietnam War buildup.
1967: Six Day War; Suez Canal closed (third postwar oil crisis).
1968: Oil discovered on Alaska's North Slope. Ba'thists seize power in Iraq1969: Qaddafi seizes power in Libya. Oil discovered in the North Sea. Santa Barbara oil spill.
1970: Libya "squeezes" oil companies. Earth Day.
1971: Tehran Agreement. Shah's Persepolis celebration. Britain withdraws military force from Gulf.
1972: Club of Rome study.
1973: Yom Kippur War; Arab Oil embargo (fourth postwar oil crisis). Oil price rises from $2.90 per barrel (September) to $11.65 (December). Alaskan pipeline approved. Watergate scandal widens.
1974: Arab Embargo ends. Nixon resigns. International Energy Agency (IEA) founded.
1975: Automobile fuel efficiency standards established in the United States. First oil comes ashore from North Sea. South Vietnam falls to communists. Saudi, Kuwaiti, and Venezuelan concessions come to an end.
1977: North Slope Alaskan oil comes to market. Buildup of Mexican production. Anwar Sadat goes to Israel.
1978: Anti-Shah demonstrations, strikes by oil workers in Iran.
1979: Shah goes into exile; Ayatollah Khomeini takes power. Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident. Iran takes hostages at U. S. Embassy.
1979-81: Panic sends oil from $13 to $34 a barrel (fifth postwar oil crisis).
1980: Iraq launches war against Iran.
1982: OPEC's first quotas.
1983: OPEC cuts price to $29. Nymex launches the crude oil futures contract.
1985: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of Soviet Union.
1986: Oil price collapse. Chernobyl nuclear accident in USSR.
1988: Ceasefire in Iran-Iraq War.
1989: Exxon Valdez tanker accident off Alaska. Berlin Wall falls; communism collapses in Eastern Europe.
1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. UN imposes embargo on Iraq; multinational force dispatched to Middle East (sixth postwar oil crisis).
"""

30 people found this helpful

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RobRoy

the real history of the world

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

Outstanding book, one of the best I've read. I never realized world history was shaped by energy: coal, kerosene, oil, natural gas. The allies won both world wars because America possessed abundant oil, and WW2 actually started because Axis powers wanted to seize oilfields. Not merely history, The Prize reveals real people from Rockefeller to Rothschild.

I dearly wish author could add a few chapters to bring us into the 2020s.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

roddy10

Fantastic history of the oil industry

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

Passion, greed, the pursuit of money, double dealing, lying, cheating, corruption, coups......this book has it all. It may sound like a description of JR Ewing (of Dallas fame) but the real life characters that Daniel Yergin describes are every bit as loud as JR.

It is hard to write a history of any industry that is both comprehensive, educational and entertaining. I was surprised how well written and engaging this book is. It is a lot of book however - at over 900 pages and the text is in a fine font. But by the end of it you will know more about oil than most industry participants. It also brings about an understanding of present day politics - for instance it helped me understand why the UK is referred to by Iran as 'Little Satan' (with the US as 'Big Satan').

Some of the trivia that Yergin covers is what makes this book so memorable and entertaining - yet the book also serves a very serious purpose in explaining how the oil industry evolved over more than a century. It is surprisingly easy to read - but due to the sheer size one ideally wants to go through it whilst on the beach for a fortnight!

I still refer to it regularly and it is never far from my desk when I am active in the markets.

2 people found this helpful

NIOLAMB

A MUST-READ FOR ANYONE SERIUOSLY INTERESTED IN THE OIL INDUSTRY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON MANKIND

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

The engaging way this book is written makes it difficult to put aside and carry on with one's daily duties. After reading "The Prize" I have got a far better understanding of the oil industry history, its structure, its evolution, its "heroes and villains", its influence in our lives since 1859, the way its lack of or abundance of changed crucial moments in the last century and a half of human history and much more.
It is hard to say something about this book that has not been said in previous Reviews (Apart from those two 3-star rating, which are, in my opinion, irrelevant) But if you are interested in the geopolitics of energy and want to know why we are so dependent on oil this book and its sequel (The Quest) are the two books to be read. Just be prepare to dedicate a good portion of your time to read them, that is why you must be "seriously interested"
All in all this book is an excellent reading, go for it!!!!

2 people found this helpful

TC Review

Black gold and what we do for it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2014

Verified Purchase

A superbly researched and well-written account of what oil means to us. The people it has made fortunes for and those it has broken on the wheel of greed and ambition are here. Here you can read about life's true gamblers, the men who bet long, not with plastic chips but with the countries they carve up, invade or just rub out, for their oil wealth.

A real eye-opener with a fabulous list of A-list stars from the Goldsmiths and Rockefellers to Winston Churchill.

David Rio

have only read 150 pages but its a true gem ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2018

Verified Purchase

have only read 150 pages but its a true gem: covers the History of oil and how it reshaped the political and social landscape since the late 19 hundreds. Its a dense reading but the author writes very well ( well its a pullitzer winner..), I consider it a true resource and worth every pence

One person found this helpful

David H. Furnival

Everything you need to know

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2016

Verified Purchase

I was recommended this book by a friend, and as a lifelong employee of one of the seven sisters I was a little embarrassed if never heard of it. This is an incredibly well written history of oil, illuminating the characters of the time. It's a long book and takes some reading, but it's worth every minute.

4 people found this helpful

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