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What it argues
The Prize is Daniel Yergin's comprehensive history of the oil industry from its origins in Pennsylvania in 1859 through the Gulf War of 1990 and 1991. Yergin, an energy economist and historian, spent a decade researching the book and draws on archival material, company records, and interviews with industry figures across three continents. The result won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1992 and remains the standard reference for anyone trying to understand how oil became the defining resource of the modern world.
The central argument is that oil is not just an economic commodity but a strategic one, and that its history is inseparable from the history of the twentieth century. Yergin traces the creation of Standard Oil and its breakup, the scramble for Baku and Persia before World War One, the role of oil logistics in both world wars, the founding of ARAMCO and the relationship between American oil companies and Saudi Arabia, the formation of OPEC, the 1973 embargo and its economic consequences, and the unraveling of the oil majors' control in the 1980s. Each chapter is a case study in how the economics of a single commodity interacts with politics, military strategy, and national interest.
What it gets right
- 1.
Oil is simultaneously an economic commodity and a strategic resource, and the tension between those two identities runs through every major conflict of the twentieth century.
- 2.
Standard Oil's dominance and breakup established the template for how governments think about industrial concentration in strategic sectors—a template still operating a century later.
- 3.
Britain and Germany's contrasting approaches to oil logistics before and during World War One were a significant factor in the war's outcome. Churchill's decision to convert the British Navy to oil made the stakes existential.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Daniel Yergin is an American author, economic historian, and energy expert. He is the founder and senior vice president of S&P Global, chair of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, and a member of numerous advisory boards and government commissions on energy policy. He received his PhD in international relations from Cambridge University. The Prize, published in 1991, won the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction and the Eccles Prize. He subsequently wrote The Quest, covering energy and climate politics through 2011, and The New Map, examining energy geopolitics in 2020. He is widely considered the leading authority on the global energy industry.
