Prologue Summary

In 1911, Winston Churchill, Great Britain's Home Secretary, favored domestic spending over war preparations against Germany. His views shifted, however, when a German gunboat entered Agadir harbor in Morocco. As head of the Admiralty, Churchill set about converting the fleet from coal to oil because "mastery itself was the prize." Eighty years later, following two world wars and a cold war where oil proved crucial, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and the Middle East joined in forcing him out. Oil - embargoed as an economic weapon and destroyed as a symbol of defiance - was central to the conflict.

Prologue Analysis

The Prologue offers vignettes from the beginning and end of the 20th century to suggest the three themes that Daniel Yergin intends to develop in this book: 1) "the rise and development of capitalism and modern business," 2) "oil as a commodity intimately intertwined with national...