The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power
Written by Daniel Yergin
www.ink2quill.com

”The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power” was written by Pullitzer Prize winning author Daniel Yergin. It´s a history of the oil industry from the Industrial Revolution to the end of the 20th Century. It was made into an audiobook narrated by Donald Sutherland and Bob Jamieson and is considered the best book written on the history of the petroleum Industry. Daniel Yergin wrote a sequel called ”Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World”. ”The Prize” won the Pullitzer Prize for General Non Fiction and has been translated into 14 languages.

The title of the book was taken from a quote by Winston Churchill in 1912. The quote foreshadows the coming strategies of the superpowers in the international arena of resource hoarding and the upgrading of technology thanks to a petroleum industry. Basically, the countries that control the world´s oil supplies will upgrade their technologies for warfare and run the world, or at least parts of it. (It is important to mention that no one country has ever ruled the world in recorded history. Empires and powerful states have ruled regions and had zones of influence, but these are two different things. In other words, no single empire or state has been able to exert military might everywhere they wanted when they wanted.) However, oil has made the world a much smaller place for those that have it.

“The battlefields of World War I established the importance of petroleum as an element of national power when the internal combustion machine overtook the horse and the coal-powered locomotive.”
― Daniel Yergin, The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power

”The Prize” is a very good read that should be read by all modern day historians. Many say that we are leaving the age of oil, or that the hydrocarbon man is due to be replaced or upgraded thanks to emerging technologies. At the end of the 20th century we saw the emergence of a technological boom called the computer age, which has yet again made the world smaller and even invaded the privacy of the average individual.

“The Prize” is an important piece to the puzzle of why countries become great. Simply put, countries achieve dominance through the industries they control and the individuals and families that control those industries are its titans and powerbrokers. The Medici  family of Italy is a good example. The Rockefeller family of the United States is another.

The Rockefeller Family wealth was started by John Davison Rockefeller during the oil age. He has been called a “business magnate” and “philanthropist” but, truth be told, he was very a clever businessman who monopolized an emerging industry and became immensely wealthy because of it. His tactics were unethical and even illegal but in this emerging industry the regulatory agencies of the US government were not ready for his business tactics. Standard Oil was the first step on a path America would take to control the oil industry.

Before I read ”The Prize” it was inconceivable that the oil age could end. I also believed that our great nation achieved all it did solely through hardwork and ingenuity. I later realized that the struggle for the world´s resources is incredibly brutal and deceptive and that is where the meat and potatoes of history is. That is to say, the history of nations, governments, peoples and movements can be studied through several key industries and important resources. One of them being ”oil”. (There is also ”water” which is so often overlooked but is by far the most important resource) ”The Prize” is a very important read because history does repeat itself and woe unto those that don´t realize that.

America has enjoyed unprecedented prosperity during the oil age. We´ve enjoyed such a high standard of living with better health care and access to better and better technologies. We´ve produced so many notable inventors, writers, sociologists, mathematicians and leaders. American language and culture has dominated half the world during the oil age and exerted its sphere of influence over the entire world.  This has led to endless wars and a hoarding of the world´s resources where North America and Western Europe who represent just 12% of the world population are responsible for 60% of private consumption spending. What will American society look like in the next age because the path we are on now is unsustainable?

”The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power” is a great and interesting read for the historians, sociologists, those entering into public service or just the curious. I highly recommend it.

(Commentary by www.ink2quill.com )
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