Crude

"Shah...has written a book that couldn't be more relevant." --"USA Today"

"Required reading for all who care about the future of this country and the planet as a whole."-- "The Nation"

"This is not a Michael Moore-style anti-corporate rant--Shah writes beautifully, with dispassionate, elegant clarity--and it is all the more powerful for it."-- "The Guardian "(UK)

"Shah has that crisp writing style and that knack for deploying statistics judiciously, rather than maniacally...most rewarding."--"The Age "(Melbourne, Australia)

"Riveting... "Crude"] is an informative, startling, and necessary book."--Roy Morrison, author of "Ecological Democracy"

"The facts and figures of the world's most important energy resource come alive... Shah] helps us understand the energy subsidy oil gives our society, how our economy is dependent on it, and what the real ramifications are of turning the key in the ignition."--Julian Darley, author of "High Noon for Natural Gas"

Now newly revised and updated, "Crude" is the story of the black gold that eclipsed King Coal, decisively won the Great War, and propelled the West from the Industrial Revolution to the Plastic Age. Sonia Shah elegantly weaves together the science, economics, politics, and social history of oil in her inimitable telling.

A former editor at South End Press and "Nuclear Times" magazine, Sonia Shah is an independent journalist whose writing has appeared in "The Nation," Playboy, "The Ecologist," "Orion," and "Salon."