The Prize (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Daniel Yergin
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Work: History and current affairs
- Time of Work: The 1850’s to the 1990’s
- Setting: The world
- Principal Characters: “Colonel” Edwin Drake, John D. Rockefeller, Marcus Samuel, Henri Deterding, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, King Ibn Sa‘ud, Mohammad Mossadegh, Gamal Abdel Nasser, J. Paul Getty, Armand Hammer, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Jimmy (James Earl) Carter, George Bush, Saddam Hussein
- Genres: Nonfiction, Current affairs, History
- Subjects: Politics, Twentieth century, Law or legislation, Oil wells or oil-well drilling, Monopolies, Energy
- Locales: Earth
In 1859, just before the American Civil War, “Colonel” Edwin L. Drake successfully drilled the first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Drake’s well led to the first oil stampede. In August, 1990, Iraq’s president, Saddam Hussein, ordered the invasion of neighboring Kuwait. That action led to another stampede, this time on the part of the United States and other United Nations countries, to liberate Kuwait—and Kuwait’s oil. For the past century and a half, oil has been the prize that has led adventurers, scientists, businessmen, politicians, and consumers in a...
[The entire page is 1892 words long]
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