ИПИ Библиотека

"The Prize" recounts the panoramic history of oil - and the struggle for wealth and power that has always surrounded oil. This struggle has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, and transformed the destiny of men and nations. "The Prize" is as much a history of the twentieth century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of history is enormous - from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqui invastion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm.

"The "Colonel"

Their candidate was one Edwin L. Drake, who was chosen mainly by coincidence. He certainly brought no outstanding or obvious qualifications to the task. He was a jack-of-all-trades and a sometime railroad conductor, who had been laid up by bad health and was living with his daughter in the old Tontine Hotel in New Haven. By chance, James Townsend, the New Haven banker, lived in the same hotel. It was the sort of hotel where men gathered to exchange news and shoot the breeze, a perfect setting for the thirty-eight-year-old Drake, who was friendly, jovial, and loquacious, and had nothing else to do. So he would pass the evenings entertaining his companions with stories drawn from his varied life. He had a vivid imagination, and his stories tended to be dramatic, exaggerated tales, in all of which Drake himself played a central, heroic role. He and Townsend talked frequently about the rock oil venture. Townsend even persuaded Drake to buy some stock in the company. Townsend then recruited Drake himself to the scheme. He was out of work and thus available, and since he was on leave as a conductor, he had a railroad pass and could travel for free, which was most helpful to the financially pinched speculative venture. He had another attribute that would be of great value: He could be very tenacious."

Daniel Yergin

Daniel H. Yergin (born February 6, 1947) is an American author, speaker, and economic researcher. Yergin is the co-founder and chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an energy research consultancy. It was acquired by HIS Energy in 2004.

Daniel Yergin is best known for The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, a number-one bestseller that won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1922. The book was adapted into a PBS mini-series seen by more than 20 million viewers. Yergin was awarded the 1997 United States Energy Award for "lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding." According to a biographical note in the March/April 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs, Yergin is currently at work on "a new book on oil and geopolitics."