Crude World

June 22, 2009
Maass (Love Thy Neighbor
) brings fresh detail to a familiar topic in this worrying but never sensationalistic look at the murky world of oil. Supplies of the resource may already have entered a period of rapid decline, with Saudi Arabia, long the world's largest oil producer, possibly passing the peak point of production just as demand from China surges. Maass exposes the staggering destruction oil has wrought in countries less well-known as energy suppliers. The author recounts how the greed of Western oil companies, governments and consumers have propped up such vicious and corrupt dictatorships as that in Equatorial Guinea, where flights run nonstop from the destitute capital to Texas. The author's “Toxic Tour” of Ecuador uncovers more cause for concern, like the fact that more oil has been spilled into that country's rain forests and stretch of Amazon than were spilled by the Exxon Valdez
in Alaska. Reported from countries ranging from Russia to Nigeria, Maass's heartfelt and beautifully crafted book reveals how one of “oil's darkly magical properties is that it erases inconvenient memories.”

July 1, 2009
Breathless, alarming evidence of the harm that oil inflicts on the world.

Mixing interviews and accounts of his visits to oil-rich nations, New York Times Magazine writer Maass (Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War, 1997), makes the convincing case that oil enriches individuals but impoverishes nations. The author points out that the countries most successful at rising from poverty—including Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan—have almost no oil. It enriches nations with stable political systems (Norway, Canada, Britain) or so few people that the avalanche of money overwhelms a corrupt elite, so it can afford to spread it around (Kuwait, Brunei, United Arab Emirates). Otherwise, it brings misery. Oil converted Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria, from a functional postcolonial state in 1960 to an impoverished, polluted, violent kleptocracy. As evidence that this is not unique, Maass recounts similar depressing stories from Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, and former Soviet nations. Relatively stable governments are not immune. Although Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela are undoubtedly enriching themselves and their friends, they are genuinely devoted to their nation. Both enjoyed the good luck of taking office as oil prices began their spectacular climb, so they became popular at home and important players on the world scene. These benefits vanished when prices crashed, leaving them worse off than neighbors who had no oil. In the concluding chapter, Maass briefly sketches earnest prescriptions for avoiding oil's malignant influence, and the viability of certain alternative-energy sources.

Skimpy final chapter aside, an absorbing, relentlessly discouraging account of the disastrous effect of oil wealth on nearly everyone.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2009
In this book Maass (contributing writer, "New York Times Magazine; Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War") gives an account of arguably the world's most important substance. He contends that except for a few small nations with large reserves, oil in general causes "negative reactions in most countries that fill their treasuries with its wages." Maass traveled the world doing research, visiting countries that either produce or consume large amounts of oil. He has learned much from his experiences but nothing more important than that caution and secrecy surround all things oil. Such secrecy leads to widespread corruption by governments and individuals. Maass believes that most of the earth's giant oil fields have peaked in terms of production and that we will be forced to reduce our dependence on oil in the near future. But in the meantime, to solve such problems, Maass advocates transparency in business dealings and the enforcement of laws to help stamp out corruption. He also wants individuals and governments to reduce their dependence on oil voluntarily, which will ultimately help lessen demand. VERDICT Although Maass does not offer much that's new on the topic, he is a practiced reporter with firsthand experience, which enables him to provide a good introduction to the subject for general readers, especially those interested in the history of 20th- and 21st-century global economic and political forces.Jeremy Spencer, Univ. of California Law Lib., Davis

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2009
Mass, a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, traveled the globe to uncover the effects of what he calls the resource cursethe power of oil to cause environmental disaster, political corruption, and economic strife wherever it is discovered. The chapter titles tell it all: Plunder, Rot, Contamination, Fear, Greed, and Alienation. The largest oil fields, in Saudi Arabia, may have already peaked; we may never know until its too late because the amount of oil that remains there is shrouded in secrecy. In Equatorial Guinea, the oil fields do nothing to enrich the countrys inhabitants because all the workers and the raw materials are imported; oil revenues are concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, so they fail to stimulate the economy as a whole. In Ecuador, an American lawyer is leading a lawsuit against Chevron to get them to clean up a 20-year-old tanker accident that is so toxic it is considered the oil worlds Chernobyl. Whether its Venezuela, Nigeria, or Russia, Maass shows how an oil-based economy that undergoes booms and busts depending on the price of oil is neither a reliable nor a healthy solution for creating long-term sustainable growth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)