The Prize

By: Daniel Yergin

Narrated by: Bob Jamieson

Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Prize recounts the panoramic history of oil, and the struggle for wealth and power that has always surrounded oil. This struggle has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, and transformed the destiny of men and nations.

The Prize is as much a history of the 20th-century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of this history is enormous - from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm.

The cast extends from wildcrafters and rogues to oil tycoons, and from Winston Churchill and Ibn Saud to George Bush and Saddam Hussein.

The definitive work on the subject of oil and a major contribution to understanding our century, The Prize is a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement--and great importance.

©1993 Daniel Yergin (P)2008 Simon & Schuster

Critic Reviews

Pulitzer Prize, General Non-Fiction, 1992

major let down

This is one of my favorite books to read. This abriged version is a disaster. They cut out all the interesting history of the oil companies and only covered the politics of mid 20th century oil. What happened to the Colonel, Rockefeller, the 7 sisters? This was awful. If you only want the oil politics of 1950 to 1990 then this is fine. For me...yuk!

44 of 44 people found this review helpful

This is ABRIDGED....*sigh*

Silly me - I didn't see the teeny tiny type that said "Abridged." That's a waste of a download. I've previously listened to this on cassette tape while driving from Seattle to NYC -- yes, that's how long this fantastic omnibus of information took to listen to. Very disappointed to see an audio file only at ~3 hours long....blech.

Audible has some work to do.

29 of 29 people found this review helpful

Yergin's book is awesome... this abridged is not

His book should be required reading. Yergin and Audible shoudl be ashamed they have taken people's money with this abridgement.

16 of 16 people found this review helpful

Abridged to death

I did not notice this was abridged until I was well into the book. This was so abridged as to be nearly worthless. In addition, the story was quite bland, not quite journalism, not quite history, not very technical, not expressing a particular opinion. The narration was good. Having listened to The Quest (which was pretty good), if Audible adds the unabridged version, I might give this one an unabridged chance. I would not recommend this version to anyone.

11 of 11 people found this review helpful

Update of a Great Book

Daniel Yergin's original version of The Prize was published in 1991. Recently he has published a rework with the dust cover which is shown on the Audible listing above. This current Audible presentation is just an update of the original book "The Prize" and only deals with developing history of the world oil business from 1965 to 2007. To get the whole story one must still read the original publication or the recently published update. This Audible volume is quite good but is a truncated version and does not include the whole book the author completed in 2007 to include the material of the earlier work. If the listener has not read "The Prize" he will have missed all the development of the oil business in the United States and its impact on the history of the 20th Century.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Justa a short resume of the book

They cut out the history of the oil companies and only covered the politics of mid 20th century oil. Not good for me. I thought it was the full book.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Get the unabridged version

This is a very interesting book, but the abridged version is too abrupt. It's quite clear that something is missing.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Good, quick history

Would you listen to The Prize again? Why?

I would listen to the Prize again because it is a concise history of middle eastern oil politics. There is much to be said about the middle east, but Yergin stays focused on his topic. The result is a listen which can be repeated without committing days or weeks.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Disappointed

I am disappointed there isn’t an unabridged version. Too good of a book to skinny down. Shame

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

good

very informative, very detailed, and a good story. really they need to update this book about every 5 years though to get it as up to date as possible. include the Iraq war etc.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful