The most interesting book I've ever read so far.
Blood and Oil is as much a long essay is it is a short book on the last 50 years of US oil concerns and the military's role in energy security. Klare lays out the history in a clear manner, explaining many of the last 30 plus years of headlines that one might otherwise come away scratching ones head.
This is a fast, easy read. Leftest view, nevertheless, a very well researched and coherently presented overview on the forces acting on the availability, supply and ultimately the price of oil (and petroleum products).
I read a lot of books about current affairs; I believe that Blood and Oil by Michael T. Klare is one of the best.
This book is not about the current wars that the US is arguably fighting over oil. It mentions them briefly, but they are not the focus, so this book is accessible to both sides of the political spectrum as far as the current wars go.
I was very disappointed with this book. The first 185 pages of this book can be summed up in one sentence: "The World is running out of oil, and we need to make some changes.
All of these are words that describe this book, and so many more that I can't even imagine. As somebody who spends a lot of time working on Energy Policy, this really helped put the issues I work on in perspective from a general standpoint.
Michael T. Klare writes that resouces are the root of most contemporary conflicts.
Blood and Oil is an interesting book; however, I personally believe that Klare takes too long to present the problem. I think he overstates the problem with too many facts.
When I first saw the book, I judged it only by the cover title thinking this was another book criticizing Unites States foreign policy in the Middle East. Although there is a bit of that, which of course is a respectable view, I was deeply pleased by the author realistic and not passional explanation of the facts regarding USA oil dependency, covering all the aspects every one needs to know in order to have a wider view of the subject and introduce yourself to the geopolitics of zones like the Persian Golf, the Caspian Sea and Latin America.
This book provides a good account of America's oil dependency and its relations to American military and political conditions. The chapters are: 2.
NOT counting Iraq, did you know that we already pay a 4 percent military premium on imported oil?Yep.
If you have felt for a while that there is something not quite right about this American life style, and our geo-political stance, but that feeling made you a little uneasy, afraid that you're just a timid, wishy-washy liberal ill-equipped to play in the big leagues of real geo-politik - read this book and bring that feeling into sharp focus. Klare lays out in a well researched and scholarly fashion the horror of what we are already trying to do with our military - attempting (an ultimately doomed effort) to secure an ever larger share of a soon to be decreasing supply of oil, in an environment where the rapid growth of Asian economies is spiking demand.
I had to purchase this book for my "Introduction to International Relations" class at University of Washington. It was pure elective and I had no clue what I was getting into.
This is an excellent analysis of the relationship between the US and the world's major (and potentially major) oil producing nations. Klare explains the history and context of the 2001 Bush energy policy, and then reveals its fallacies and hidden consequences.
