An edition of The Oil and the Glory (2007)

The Oil and the Glory

The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea

  • 2 Want to read
Locate

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

Check-In

×Close
Add an optional check-in date. Check-in dates are used to track yearly reading goals.
Today

  • 2 Want to read

Buy this book

Last edited by IdentifierBot
August 5, 2010 | History
An edition of The Oil and the Glory (2007)

The Oil and the Glory

The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea

  • 2 Want to read

Remote, forbidding, and volatile, the Caspian Sea long tantalized the world with its vast oil reserves. But outsiders, blocked by the closed Soviet system, couldn't get to it. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, and a wholesale rush into the region erupted. Along with oilmen, representatives of the world's leading nations flocked to the Caspian for a share of the thirty billion barrels of proven oil reserves at stake, and a tense geopolitical struggle began. The main players were Moscow and Washington--the former seeking to retain control of its satellite states, and the latter intent on dislodging Russia to the benefit of the West. The Oil and the Glory is the gripping account of this latest phase in the epochal struggle for control of the earth's "black gold." Steve LeVine, who was based in the region for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Newsweek, weaves an astonishing tale of high-stakes political gamesmanship, greed, and scandal, set in one of the most opaque corners of the world. In LeVine's telling, the world's energy giants jockey for position in the rich Kazakh and Azeri oilfields, while superpowers seek to gain a strategic foothold in the region and to keep each other in check. At the heart of the story is the contest to build and operate energy pipelines out of the landlocked region, the key to controlling the Caspian and its oil. The oil pipeline that resulted, the longest in the world, is among Washington's greatest foreign policy triumphs in at least a decade and a half. Along the way, LeVine introduces such players as James Giffen, an American moneyman who was also the political "fixer" for oil companies eager to do business on the Caspian and the broker for Kazakhstan's president and ministers; John Deuss, the flamboyant Dutch oil trader who won big but lost even bigger; Heydar Aliyev, the oft-misunderstood Azeri president who transcended his past as a Soviet Politburo member and masterminded a scheme to loosen Russian control over its former colonies in the Caspian region; and all manner of rogues, adventurers, and others drawn by the irresistible pull of untold riches and the possible "final frontier" of the fossil-fuel era. The broader story is of the geopolitical questions of the Caspian oil bonanza, such as whether Russia can be a trusted ally and trading partner with the West, and what Washington's entry into this important but chaotic region will mean for its long-term stability.In an intense and suspenseful narrative, The Oil and the Glory is the definitive chronicle of events that are understood by few, but whose political and economic impact will be both profound and lasting."The collapse of the Soviet Union was a big opportunity for Big Oil, whose exploits are detailed in this fast-paced work of political and economic reportage by Wall Street Journal energy correspondent LeVine.Westerners had been sniffing for black gold in Russia and its satellites long before the empire disintegrated, notes the author. Averell Harriman, "the Harvard-trained scion of nineteenth-century robber baron Edward Harriman," tried his hand at the business before turning to manganese mining, while Armand Hammer "became a money launderer for the Bolsheviks, sneaked cash to secret Bolshevik agents in the United States, and profited handsomely as the representative in Russia of some thirty American companies." Hammer set the tone for the Americans who flocked to the Caspian in the first years of the Clinton presidency, which maneuvered for the construction of an east-west oil pipeline that, by reversing the old pattern of Central Asian materials going north to Russia and coming back as products for sale,...

Publish Date
Publisher
Random House
Language
English
Pages
496

Buy this book

Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Il petrolio e la gloria
Il petrolio e la gloria: La corsa al dominio e alle ricchezze della regione del Mar Caspio
2009, il Sirente
215x140x26 in Italian - Prima
Cover of: The Oil and the Glory
The Oil and the Glory
2007, Random House Publishing Group
Electronic resource in English
Cover of: Oil and the Glory
Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea
2007, Penguin Random House
in English
Cover of: The Oil and the Glory
The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea
October 23, 2007, Random House
in English
Cover of: The oil and the glory
The oil and the glory: the pursuit of empire and fortune on the Caspian Sea
2007, Random House
in English

Add another edition?

Book Details


ID Numbers

Open Library
OL7425993M
ISBN 10
0375506144
ISBN 13
9780375506147
Library Thing
4170161
Goodreads
1158554

Community Reviews (0)

Feedback?
No community reviews have been submitted for this work.

Lists

This work does not appear on any lists.

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON / OPDS | Wikipedia citation
August 5, 2010 Edited by IdentifierBot added LibraryThing ID
April 24, 2010 Edited by Open Library Bot Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs.
April 16, 2010 Edited by bgimpertBot Added goodreads ID.
April 14, 2010 Edited by Open Library Bot Linked existing covers to the edition.
April 29, 2008 Created by an anonymous user Imported from amazon.com record