Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil

The Catastrophic Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico has brought new attention to the huge costs of our oil dependence. In this stunning and revealing book, Peter Maass examines the social, political, and environmental impact of petroleum on the countries that produce it.

Every unhappy oil-producing nation is unhappy in its own way, but all are touched by the "resource curse"-the power of oil to exacerbate existing problems and create new ones. Maass presents a vivid portrait of the troubled wor...