Crude

"Riveting. [Crude] is an informative, startling, and necessary book."-Roy Morrison, author of Ecological Democracy

Crude is the unexpurgated story of oil, from the circumstances of its birth millions of years ago to the spectacle of its rise as the indispensable ingredient of modern life. In addition to fueling our SUVs and illuminating our cities, crude oil and its byproducts fertilize our produce, pave our roads, and make plastic possible. "Newborn babies," observes author Sonia Shah, "slide from their mothers into petro-plastic-gloved hands, are swaddled in petro-polyester blankets, and are hurried off to be warmed by oil-burning heaters." The modern world is drenched in oil; Crude tells how it came to be. A great human drama emerges, of discovery and innovation, risk, the promise of riches and the power of greed.

From the beginning, crude oil has inspired awe and sparked violence. In the early days of this fascinating saga of man and mineral, the mysterious sap was used to tell the future (from the shapes drops made in water) and to fight wars (as liquid fire flung at the enemy). Author Shah infuses recent chapters of the story with equal drama, through chronicles of colorful modern-day characters-from the hundreds of Nigerian women who stormed a Chevron plant, to a monomaniacal scientist for whom life is the pursuit of this earthblood and its elusive secret.

From the billions of microscopic plankton collecting on the ancient ocean floor to the occupation of Iraq, Shah moves masterfully between scientific, economic, political and social analysis. Crude captures the many sides of the indispensable mineral we someday may have to find a way to live without.

Sonia Shah is the editor of the critically acclaimed Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire and Between Fear and Hope: A Decade of Peace Activism. She is a former editor at South End Press and Nuclear Times magazine.