Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology, 1859-1920


Because oil has made fortunes, caused wars, and shaped nations, no one questions the assertion that the quest for oil is a quest for power. The question we should ask, Finding Oil suggests, is rather what kind of power prospectors have wanted. This book revises oil’s early history by exploring the incredibly varied stories of the men who pitted themselves against nature to unleash the power of oil.



Brian Frehner shows how, despite the towering presence of a figure like John D. Rockefeller as a quintessential “oil man,” prospectors were a diverse lot who saw themselves, their interests, and their relationships with nature in profoundly different ways. He traces their various pursuits of power from 1859 to 1920 as a struggle for cultural, intellectual, and professional authority over both nature and their peers. Charting the intersection between human and natural history, their stories trace the ever-evolving relationship between science and industry and reveal the unexpected role geology played in shaping our understanding of the history of oil.


Brian Frehner is an associate professor of history at Oklahoma State University. He is the coeditor of Indians and Energy: Exploitation and Opportunity in the American Southwest.

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Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology, 1859-1920


Because oil has made fortunes, caused wars, and shaped nations, no one questions the assertion that the quest for oil is a quest for power. The question we should ask, Finding Oil suggests, is rather what kind of power prospectors have wanted. This book revises oil’s early history by exploring the incredibly varied stories of the men who pitted themselves against nature to unleash the power of oil.



Brian Frehner shows how, despite the towering presence of a figure like John D. Rockefeller as a quintessential “oil man,” prospectors were a diverse lot who saw themselves, their interests, and their relationships with nature in profoundly different ways. He traces their various pursuits of power from 1859 to 1920 as a struggle for cultural, intellectual, and professional authority over both nature and their peers. Charting the intersection between human and natural history, their stories trace the ever-evolving relationship between science and industry and reveal the unexpected role geology played in shaping our understanding of the history of oil.


Brian Frehner is an associate professor of history at Oklahoma State University. He is the coeditor of Indians and Energy: Exploitation and Opportunity in the American Southwest.

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Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology, 1859-1920

Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology, 1859-1920

by Brian Frehner
Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology, 1859-1920

Finding Oil: The Nature of Petroleum Geology, 1859-1920

by Brian Frehner

Paperback(Reprint)

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Overview


Because oil has made fortunes, caused wars, and shaped nations, no one questions the assertion that the quest for oil is a quest for power. The question we should ask, Finding Oil suggests, is rather what kind of power prospectors have wanted. This book revises oil’s early history by exploring the incredibly varied stories of the men who pitted themselves against nature to unleash the power of oil.



Brian Frehner shows how, despite the towering presence of a figure like John D. Rockefeller as a quintessential “oil man,” prospectors were a diverse lot who saw themselves, their interests, and their relationships with nature in profoundly different ways. He traces their various pursuits of power from 1859 to 1920 as a struggle for cultural, intellectual, and professional authority over both nature and their peers. Charting the intersection between human and natural history, their stories trace the ever-evolving relationship between science and industry and reveal the unexpected role geology played in shaping our understanding of the history of oil.


Brian Frehner is an associate professor of history at Oklahoma State University. He is the coeditor of Indians and Energy: Exploitation and Opportunity in the American Southwest.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780803290624
Publisher: Nebraska
Publication date: 12/01/2016
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 248
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author


Brian Frehner is an associate professor of history at Oklahoma State University. He is the coeditor of Indians and Energy: Exploitation and Opportunity in the American Southwest.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1. Local Knowledge

1. Vernacular Authority in the Oil Field

2. Collaborative Authority: Nineteenth-Century Foundations of Petroleum Geology

Part 2. Contested Knowledge

3. Shared Authority: Practical Oil Men and Professional Geologists

4. Institutional Authority: Field Work, Universities, and Surveys

Part 3. Appropriated Knowledge

5. Geology Organized: Henry L. Doherty's Technological System

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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