Crude World : The Violent Twilight of Oil (Paperback)

from gbelik

The series of essays in this book profile oil producing countries and show how the world of oil fosters corruption, distorts the economy, encourages conflict and alters values. Until oil has less value, the countries that produce it will be subject to forces its wealth creates. A well written and...

from janemarieprice

"The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not the mineral rights." - J. Paul Getty With chapters divided by region, [Crude World] examines the effects of the oil industry on oil-producing states. Each section was very interesting in and of itself, but ultimately it felt like a series of newspaper ar...

from nmele

I put this book on my "politics" shelf because although Maas considers the economics of petroleum, the focus of his argument is that, as Lord Acton wrote "power tends to corrupt", and oil is power in most meanings of that word.

from KeithAkers

I heard this guy speak at the recent ASPO-USA conference. He's good. This book is very much "human interest" journalism -- no need to worry about charts and graphs here, or tortuous explanations of depletion rates. He goes to Africa, central Asia, and all over the world to talk to people affected...

from BillPilgrim

Maass persuasively shows how in most cases, countries that have oil reserves are negatively impacted by it. It often corrupts the politicians, who steal the oil money, such as in Equatorial Guinea, the wealth is often spent in counterproductive means to placate the citizenry, such as in Venezuela...