Description: This concise, accessible introduction to the history of oil tells the story of how petroleum has shaped human life since it was first discovered oozing inconspicuously from the soil. Brian Black brings a global perspective and a wide-ranging technical knowledge clearly explain...
Brief description: Brian C. Black is head of the Division of Arts and Humanities and professor of history and environmental studies at Penn State Altoona.
Review Quotes:
"Over the past 150 years, oil has become a ubiquitous part of modern life. Placing a strong emphasis on oil's environmental impact, Brian Black explores the many ways oil production and consumption have shaped world history. Wide-ranging and engagingly written, Crude Reality is an indispensable starting point for understanding how the world got to be the way it is today and the forces that are shaping its ongoing evolution." --David Painter, Georgetown University
"Brian Black is one of America's leading historians of energy and the oil industry, and this updated book provides scholars and the general public a splendid guide to those subjects. It is concise, thoroughly researched, wide-ranging in focus, and as relevant to our times as history can be. And it's good reading all the way!" --Donald E. Worster, University of Kansas "Crude Reality is a sweeping and accessible survey of how modern industrial societies became ever more dependent on petroleum. A valuable primer for readers wanting to learn more about our petroleum predicament." --Tyler Priest, University of Iowa