Untapped
The Scramble for Africa's Oil
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · April 14, 2008
Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn’t seemed worth the effort and risk until recently.
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- Who it’s for
- A reported journey through Africa’s oil boom, where global ambitions meet lives changed by extraction.
- Themes
- African oil boom, Global energy competition, Oil development's community impacts
- Pacing
- Fast
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn’t seemed worth the effort and risk until recently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude oil skyrocketing and advancing technology making reserves easier to tap, the region has become the scene of a competition between major powers that recalls the nineteenth-century scramble for colonization there. But what does this giddy new oil boom mean—for America, for the world, for Africans themselves?
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John Ghazvinian traveled through twelve African countries—from Sudan to Congo to Angola—talking to warlords, industry executives, bandits, activists, priests, missionaries, oil-rig workers, scientists, and ordinary people whose lives have been transformed—not necessarily for the better—by the riches beneath their feet. The result is a high-octane narrative that reveals the challenges, obstacles, reasons for despair, and reasons for hope emerging from one of the world’s energy hot spots.
Oil’s Wider Reach
A reported journey through Africa’s oil boom, where global ambitions meet lives changed by extraction.
Come here for
- The uneasy overlap of energy politics and everyday consequences
- Perspectives from twelve countries and many sides of the industry
Expect
- A wide-ranging narrative about power, risk, despair, and hope
- Questions that reach beyond oil fields to America and the world
Where it sits
| African Politics | 51% |
|---|---|
| African History | 33% |
| Energy Industry | 22% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Business Development
- Finance
- Economics
- Mining & Extraction Business
Show all 8 publisher categories
- African History
- Social History
- Energy
- Cultural Anthropology
- Authors
- John Ghazvinian
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- April 14, 2008
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- African oil boom · Global energy competition · Oil development's community impacts
- Reading lane
- Business Development