Crude: The Story of Oil
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Product Description
Crude is the unexpurgated story of oil, from the circumstances of its birth millions of years ago to the spectacle of its rise as the indispensable ingredient of modern life. In addition to fueling our SUVs and illuminating our cities, crude oil and its byproducts fertilize our produce, pave our roads, and make plastic possible. "Newborn babies," observes author Sonia Shah, "slide from their mothers into petro-plastic-gloved hands, are swaddled in petro-polyester blankets, and are hurried off to be warmed by oil-burning heaters." The modern world is drenched in oil; Crude tells how it came to be. A great human drama emerges, of discovery and innovation, risk, the promise of riches, and the power of greed.
Shah infuses recent twists in the story with equal drama, through chronicles of colorful modern-day characters — from the hundreds of Nigerian women who stormed a Chevron plant to a monomaniacal scientist for whom life is the pursuit of this earthblood and its elusive secret. Shah moves masterfully between scientific, economic, political, and social analysis, capturing the many sides of the indispensable mineral that we someday may have to find a way to live without.
Shah infuses recent twists in the story with equal drama, through chronicles of colorful modern-day characters — from the hundreds of Nigerian women who stormed a Chevron plant to a monomaniacal scientist for whom life is the pursuit of this earthblood and its elusive secret. Shah moves masterfully between scientific, economic, political, and social analysis, capturing the many sides of the indispensable mineral that we someday may have to find a way to live without.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This could have been a great book.
Oil is a truly amazing substance, a critical resource for our (current) way of life, and just about one of the most controversial subjects a book could be written about.
Why then did this book leave me unsatisfied and irritated?
Shah's unrelenting piousness and whingeing negativity plays a big part in it. She seems determined to grind her readers down rather than bring them with her.
Throughout the book she never sways from a rigid single point of view: all oil companies are evil, people who drive cars are stupid and short-sighted and greedy, the world's been manipulated in to dependency on oil as a result of a global conspiracy by multinational companies, oil is bad, anything but oil is good... etc etc.
The author has an annoying habit of illustrating her points by making comparisons, but not comparing like with like and not explaining the full picture. Shah's a sucker for a sound bite.
In one example, Shah seems to imply that we should all cycle from London to Scotland rather than catch the nasty oil-guzzling train. Shah cites the energy outlay required to do a one mile journey on a bicycle (20 kilocalories). She then compares this favourably to the energy required per passenger for a one mile journey by train (210 kilocalories). Wow. Great headline figure. But what Shah doesn't say is that the train is able to travel much faster and much greater distances than the bicycle, to the point that the two modes of transport are pretty much incomparable.
But aside from the dogmatism and dodgy use of statistics, its Shah's continual use of emotionally loaded language to describe simple things that got me most irritated. For example, the process of getting oil out of the ground is rarely described simply as extracted, drilled or mined, it's inevitably `bled', `prised', `sucked dry' or `pillaged'.
Maybe Shah's intention with Crude is to provoke readers to see the light, to leap up and join their nearest climate camp. But it didn't work for me. I just got irritated and bored and ended up leaving this book at the bottom of my (plastic) bag.
Oil is a truly amazing substance, a critical resource for our (current) way of life, and just about one of the most controversial subjects a book could be written about.
Why then did this book leave me unsatisfied and irritated?
Shah's unrelenting piousness and whingeing negativity plays a big part in it. She seems determined to grind her readers down rather than bring them with her.
Throughout the book she never sways from a rigid single point of view: all oil companies are evil, people who drive cars are stupid and short-sighted and greedy, the world's been manipulated in to dependency on oil as a result of a global conspiracy by multinational companies, oil is bad, anything but oil is good... etc etc.
The author has an annoying habit of illustrating her points by making comparisons, but not comparing like with like and not explaining the full picture. Shah's a sucker for a sound bite.
In one example, Shah seems to imply that we should all cycle from London to Scotland rather than catch the nasty oil-guzzling train. Shah cites the energy outlay required to do a one mile journey on a bicycle (20 kilocalories). She then compares this favourably to the energy required per passenger for a one mile journey by train (210 kilocalories). Wow. Great headline figure. But what Shah doesn't say is that the train is able to travel much faster and much greater distances than the bicycle, to the point that the two modes of transport are pretty much incomparable.
But aside from the dogmatism and dodgy use of statistics, its Shah's continual use of emotionally loaded language to describe simple things that got me most irritated. For example, the process of getting oil out of the ground is rarely described simply as extracted, drilled or mined, it's inevitably `bled', `prised', `sucked dry' or `pillaged'.
Maybe Shah's intention with Crude is to provoke readers to see the light, to leap up and join their nearest climate camp. But it didn't work for me. I just got irritated and bored and ended up leaving this book at the bottom of my (plastic) bag.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Oil is my favorite subject & so was looking forward to reading this book - I shouldn't have bothered, it is way too shallow and too lefty in it's opinions. I wanted a neutral history with no great opinions either way. I get the feeling Miss Shah has green motives at heart & the history is second to her real motives, criticizing the oil industry.
Kirk Dickenson
Kirk Dickenson
Format:Paperback
This book starts off well, covering the physical formation of oil and the beginnings of the oil industry. Unfortunately it quickly degenerates into a diatribe with the author blaming oil and the oil industry for pretty much every ill in the world (not that the oil industry is run by saints but not every problem in the world is due to evil Texan oil barons, however if you believed this book you might think that was the case). Have to give it 1 star I'm afraid due to the undeniable bias in the writing which renders the book annoying to read at times.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Crude: The story of oil
I really enjoyed reading this book. It begins with a great introduction to the provenance of oil (science and chemistry fot the layman), which had me hooked, then looks at how oil... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Dp Rodger
A frightening, but crucial read...
If you're looking for an intricate, blow-by-blow history of oil, then Crude may not be the book for you. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Mr. Steve Jansen
I recommend it: A glimpse of our future
I very much recommend this book. It was extremely informative, without being dry. The author can explain complicated connections. Read more
Published on 28 April 2009 by Murat Dara Koper
Very informative and easy to read
There's a lot of "global issue" books out there that get bogged down in too much detail to the point that they are too boring to read. Read more
Published on 22 Sep 2008 by fatscot
Complete waste of money!
I purchased this book expecting it to give me a history of crude instead the book was a left wing anti oil whinge. Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2008 by bod
Topical
Sonia Shah's book is a very revealing read about oil, as the title states. It draws together not only the history of oil but it place in modern society and how it affects many... Read more
Published on 26 Feb 2008 by Mr X
there's no better time to read the fascinating story of oil
Sonia Shah begins her history of oil with the ancient movements of tectonic plates, and ends it in a world without humans, the oil slowly accumulating again deep underground. Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2008 by Jeremy Williams
Behind The Barrel
Following OPEC's decision to limit member countries barrel sales to a proportion of their reserves members stated reserves suddenly rocketed, without significant new finds, funny... Read more
Published on 13 July 2006 by Just2Fish
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