Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
Why are oil and gas prices so high?
Who's really controlling those prices?
How much oil is left?
How far will Big Oil go to get it?
And at what cost to the environment, human rights, the economy, worker safety, public health, and democracy?
The answers aren't what you think. They're much worse. But there's also plenty that we can do about it.
As oil prices—and public outrage—skyrocket, Antonia Juhasz, a leading industry critic and expert on corporations and globalization, gives us the hardest-hitting exposé of the oil industry in decades. In The Tyranny of Oil she investigates the true state of the U.S. oil industry—uncovering its virtually unparalleled global power, influence over our elected officials, and lack of regulatory oversight, as well as the truth behind $150-a-barrel oil, $4.50-a-gallon gasoline, and the highest profit in corporate history. Exposing an industry that thrives on secrecy, Juhasz shows how Big Oil manages to hide its business dealings from policy makers, legislators, and, most of all, consumers. She reveals exactly how Big Oil gets what it wants—through money, influence, and lies.
The Tyranny of Oil offers both a new take on problems and a new set of solutions as Juhasz puts forward an immediate call to action—a formula for reining in the industry, its governmental lobbying power, environmental destruction, and violence while reducing global dependence on oil. Her thought-provoking answers to the most pressing energy questions speak directly to readers concerned about oil and gas prices, global warming, wars for oil, and America's place in the world. With the major players in the world's most powerful industry charged with collusion, price-gouging, anticompetitive behavior, and unabashed greed, Juhasz calls boldly for the breakup of Big Oil.
Drawing on considerable historical research, Juhasz explores the parallels between today's companies and Standard Oil, the most powerful corporation of the early twentieth century, whose stranglehold on the economy and government was broken only by the vision and persistence of activists and like-minded politicians. We are in a similar position today, she argues, with powerful opportunities available for ordinary Americans to come together, reclaim their voices, and shore up our nation's crumbling democratic foundation.
A tool for meaningful change that blends history, original investigative research and reporting, candid interviews with key insiders, and a unique focus on activism, The Tyranny of Oil is required reading for every concerned global citizen.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Kept Me Up late at night - Reading!
Customer Rating:
What an engrossing book. I have now bought 3 of them and given them to my grown children to read. This book captured me from the first chapter and held my interest through to the end. Most nights I would lie in bed reading until 1-2 AM and reluctantly turn off the light, only to toss and turn unable to fall asleep because I couldn't turn off my mind to what I was reading in this book. Ms. Juhasz has done an excellent job of educating the reader on the very beginning of the oil industry and bringing us through to the power of oil today. I found all the details of oil power to be disgusting but not surprising. I wish this book could be required reading for every high school and college student. We really need a wake-up call and this book is it.
I highly recommend reading this book if you care about what is going on with climate change, political corruption and wars.
It's time to bring the truth into the open
Customer Rating:
Antonia Juhasz's "Tyranny of Oil" is a well-written, scholarly work that is fully documented with footnotes supporting every factual statement. Her history of the oil industry is meticulous and revealing. People like Bojan Garic who dismiss this work with personal venom, like "this is the Worst Oil Book I have ever read" only reveal how desparate they are to marginalize someone like Juhasz who speak truth to power. Reviews like Garic's are to be expected when someone like Juhasz draws blood. Other reviewers, like Steve LeVine of the Washington Post have also been dispatched to spread the word that no intelligent, thoughtful person should read this book because it is so factually flawed that its theme can't be taken seriously. But Juhasz's case can't be ignored. It is factually documented where it can be, and it is tight, well-constructed and compelling where the evidence is only circumstantial. What else can one do in the absence of DNA, fingerprints or inculpatory tapes or e-mails? Juhasz readily admits that she has no smoking gun regarding the roll of Big Oil in America's debacle in Iraq, but she, neverhteless, says what needs to be said. She tells us what the 850 lb gorilla in the room is up to. Garic and LeVine, on the other hand, try to throw up a smoke screen arguing that the Gorilla isn't there because we don't have enough DNA for a 100% match. Ignore them. Everyone should read this book.
Great read, important book
Customer Rating:
This is the right book for our times; from Exxon's record- breaking profits in a time of global recession to America's involvement in wars clearly being fought for cheap oil, this is the book that ties it all together. I have to admit, I also found it compulsively readable!
Massive and Magnificent
Customer Rating:
This timely tome is the best current overview of the oil industry out there, and the most ambitious examination of Big Oil since Daniel Yergin's "The Prize." I found it to be a lot more incisive than Yergin (who as an industry consultant, was reluctant to expose his clients' worst crimes, except as aberrations), since it is a more critical examination of the industry (in the tradition of the author's muckraker hero, Ida Tarbell, who she introduces early on), while being clearly written and amply referenced.
What results is a sweeping examination of virtually all the big controversies related to the oil industry -- from the recent history of weak antitrust policies to Peak Oil to Iraq and the relationship between Big Oil and the military -- to global warming. Given the volatility of oil and gas prices, the explanation of how the industry is structured and how futures markets work are particularly useful.
We are also introduced to people who suffer the immediate impacts of oil industry development -- from a poor African-American community downwind from Chevron's giant Richmond, CA refinery to Nigeria (where Chevron helicoptered in security forces that opened fire on nonviolent protesters) to Ecuador (where the company is being sued for dumping ten times more oil in a pristine area of the Amazon than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez).
The suggestions at the end of the book are bold but grounded in solid policy frameworks -- proposals that the post-oiligarchy administration will heed if they don't want to mere cosmetic and incremental reforms.
In sum, if you want one book that explains the key facts about the oil industry as well as the policies necessary to curb the threats it poses to democracy and our survival, read this book.
A must read for all responsible global citizens!
Customer Rating:
Please buy a copy of this book and donate it to your local library! Prepare for a serious history lesson and dig into "The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry--and What We Must Do to Stop It". Antonia Juhasz offers a sobering but highly readable history lesson into how we got to where we are now, a history that seems to be repeating itself, but has a happy ending of citizen engagement and shift. You wont be able to put it down, and will want to share it with your friends.
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