Ebook: Black gold: the story of oil in our lives

Thick and slippery, crude oil has an evil smell. Yet without it, life as we live it today would be impossible. Oil fuels our engines, heats our homes, and powers the machines that make the everyday things we take for granted, from shopping bags to computers to medical equipment. Nations throughout the last century have gone to war over it. Indeed, oil influences every aspect of modern life. It helps shape the history, society, politics, and economy of every nation on earth.;Prologue : how Daddy nearly blew himself up -- A freak of geology -- Black gold -- The destiny of nations -- Automobiles and Middle Eastern oil -- Hopeless monsters -- Richest prize, greatest problem -- A day of reckoning -- Fossil fuels and the natural environment -- Toward a new energy order.