Point of View

The Prize is written in the third person, as befits a formal history.

Setting

The Prize begins on a minute scale, in a professor's office at Yale University and on a West Pennsylvania farm, half a decade before the beginning of the American Civil War. When "rock oil," which the professor scientifically proved to possess marketable properties, was struck in Titusville, PA, a rush began that swiftly encompassed the entire globe. Yergin covers the period from that first gusher in 1854 to the hellish flaming oil fields of Kuwait at the end of the First Gulf War in 1991. In the beginning, he focuses on America as the pioneer in discovery, production, marketing, and consumption of the commodity. Very soon, however, Europe too desires the powerful resource. As demand grows, incentive to find new sources of oil increases, and entrepreneurs explore all possible locations - the Crimea, Romania...