''Fascinating revelations'' Max Hastings, Sunday Times
''Wonderfully detailed and colourful'' Steven Poole, Daily Telegraph
''The book I have long been waiting for... Essential reading'' Michael Klare
Petroleum has always been used by humans: as an adhesive by Neanderthals, as a waterproofing agent in Noah''s Ark and as a weapon during the Crusades. Its eventual extraction from the earth in vast quantities transformed light, heat and power. A Pipeline Runs Through It is a fresh, comprehensive in-depth look at the social, economic, political and geopolitical forces involved in our transition to the modern oil age. It tells an extraordinary origin story, from the pre-industrial history of petroleum through to large-scale production in the mid-nineteenth century and the development of a dominant, fully-fledged oil industry by the early twentieth century.
This was always a story of imperialist violence, political disenfranch
