The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
| Company type | Book |
|---|---|
| Industry | Publishing |
| Founded | December 1990 |
| Founder | Daniel Yergin |
| Products | Nonfiction book |
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power is Daniel Yergin’s comprehensive 1990 chronicle of the worldwide petroleum sector spanning from the mid-19th century to 1990. Published in December 1990, shortly after Kuwait’s invasion and just prior to the Gulf War, the book swiftly became a bestseller and was honored with the Pulitzer Prize.
In 2024, an unabridged audiobook edition was issued, including a new epilogue by Yergin that contemplates the book’s enduring significance more than three decades after its initial release.
Recognized as the authoritative account of the oil industry’s history, The Prize is frequently cited as a vital reference for grasping petroleum’s influence on international commerce and geopolitical affairs.
Popular success
Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1992, The Prize has been translated into fourteen different languages. Although the hardcover version is no longer in print, the paperback remains accessible. It is commonly recommended reading for those exploring the history of petroleum.
Joseph R. Rudolph Jr., a professor, commended it in Library Journal as a seminal work that skillfully blends academic rigor with compelling storytelling about oil’s pivotal role in capitalism, global power structures, and society’s reliance on hydrocarbon energy.
Sources
After a decade of research, The Prize was developed through extensive investigation by Daniel Yergin and his research team, which included Sue Lena Thompson, Robert Laubacher, and Geoffrey Lumsden. As Chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and a Global Energy Analyst for NBC and CNBC, Yergin utilized his deep industry connections. The book features 61 pages of notes and a 26-page bibliography citing over 700 sources such as books, articles, dissertations; 60 government records; 28 data sets; more than 34 manuscript collections; fifteen government archives; eight oral histories; and archives from four major oil corporations (Amoco, Chevron, Gulf Oil, Royal Dutch Shell). Additionally, it incorporates 80 interviews with prominent figures like James Schlesinger and Armand Hammer.
Adaptations
The book inspired an eight-episode documentary series titled The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power, narrated by Donald Sutherland and broadcast on PBS during 1992–1993. This series reportedly attracted around 20 million viewers across the United States.
An abridged audiobook narrated by Bob Jamieson was released in 1991, followed by a full unabridged version narrated by Michael David Axtell in 2024.
In 2011, Yergin released The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World through Penguin Press as a follow-up to The Prize.
The title of the book originates from a statement made in 1912 by Winston Churchill, then serving as First Lord of the Admiralty, who advocated transitioning the British Navy from coal to oil fuel while recognizing the strategic vulnerability posed by dependence on imported oil.
As quoted by Yergin:
Constructing any significant number of oil-powered vessels meant anchoring our naval dominance on oil. However, substantial oil reserves were absent from our islands. If required, we would need to transport it by sea during times of peace or conflict from remote nations. Conversely, we possessed abundant supplies of superior steam coal secured within our own mines. Committing the Navy irrevocably to oil was indeed akin to "taking arms against a sea of troubles." Yet if these challenges and risks could be overcome, "we would be able to elevate the entire power and efficiency of the Navy to a distinctly higher level; superior ships, enhanced crews, greater economies, more potent forms of war power"—in short, "mastery itself was the prize of the venture." [Emphasis added]