Out in the Blue: Letters from Arabia 1937-1940

by Thomas C. Barger, Timothy J. Barger (Editor)

Overview

Out in the Blue is Tom Barger's story of his first three years exploring the deserts of early Saudi Arabia for an embryonic oil company that had yet to discover oil. In his travels he visited ancient places that have now all but disappeared and met Bedouin living a pre-Biblical nomadic life that was soon to irrevocably change in the face of modernization. Told through the letters he wrote home to Kathleen, his young bride of only two weeks before he left her for the Kingdom, Out in the Blue is the story of Saudi Arabia before there was oil.

Length: 90,000 words, approximately 360 pages, 74 photographs, 4 maps, Glossary and Bibliography

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013216730
Publisher:	Selwa Press
Publication date:	11/02/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Tom Barger went to Saudi Arabia in 1937 as a junior field geologist. He spent 32 years in the country and retired in 1969 as the Chairman of the Board of Aramco, the largest independent oil producing company in the world. After retirement he served as a policy advisor to the US government and as a board member of several major corporations. He also lectured frequently on the subject of Middle Eastern policy and wrote articles and books on Middle Eastern energy and politics, including - Energy Policies of the World: Arab States of the Persian Gulf.

Editorial Reviews

"If anyone is searching for a summer read of vicarious adventure, try this book about the early days of the contemporary oil industry. ... [It is] a book that serves as a reminder of how history can be captured though the lost art of letter-writing."

Andrea Lorenz

"Despite extensive coverage of the Gulf War, few Americans know how the United States came to depend on the Middle East for oil. In Out in the Blue, Thomas Barger provides a fascinating glimpse of that history. ... It is an exciting narrative of desert exploration and romance set against the emerging threat of a world war."

Brenda Daly

" Many of the pictures of Arabia which accompany the text are from a priceless collection Barger put together over the years. Moving as his letters are, they are also full of acute observations about the land and the people."

David E. Long

"And here lies the best virtue of this book: there are no stereotypical Americans, no stereotypical Saudis, only real people thrust into unfamiliar circumstances and new kinds of social relations, each struggling according to his own ability to build an industry which would, in only a few short years, utterly transform the country and its way of life."

Kevin Rosser

"The letters of the young Thomas Barger written to his new bride Kathleen form a frank, fresh and revealing insight into the early days of oil exploration and the historic ties between two nations."

Peter Harrigan