Crude: The Story of Oil - Softcover

Shah, Sonia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1583227237 ISBN 13: 9781583227237

Publisher: Seven Stories Press, 2006

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

SONIA SHAH edited both the critically acclaimed Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire and Between Fear and Hope: A Decade of Peace Activism. A former editor at South End Press and Nuclear Times Magazine, Shah is an independent journalist whose writing appears in The Nation, The Progressive, Salon, and elsewhere.

Review:

"A brilliant book...Shah writes beautifully, with dispassionate, elegant clarity--and it is all the more powerful for it." -- The Guardian, February 26, 2005

"Couldn’t be more relevant." -- USA Today, October 17, 2004

"Particularly eloquent on the despoliation of the Delta region of southern Nigeria. -- The Nation, November 8, 2004

"Shah could have easily written a laundry list...This volume is more than that." -- Clamor magazine

"Surely one of the most important books of the year." -- Dingbat magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1583227237
• ISBN 13: 9781583227237
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 246