Upton Sinclair's searing indictment of fossil fuels that predicts our current warming planet while imagining a greener and more inclusive future A Penguin ClassicPerhaps most well-known today as the inspiration for Paul Thomas Anderson’s film
There Will Be Blood, Upton Sinclair’s novel
Oil! burst into the literary limelight amid soaring petroleum profits and gaping inequalities in 1927. By turns an ardent family saga, scintillating potboiler, and anti-capitalist tirade,
Oil! ranks among the most important critiques of fossil energy ever printed; and while anticipating how fossil fuels have shaped the dilemmas of our present, it also looks toward a greener, more inclusive, and altogether more livable world yet to come. This edition features a contextual introduction by Michael Tondre that illuminates the novel’s urgent timeliness in our warming world.
'A classic tale of greed and corruption' Erich Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation
Upton Sinclair's searing, prophetic indictment of fossil fuels, and the inspiration for the film There Will Be Blood
Based on the oil scandals of the Harding administration, Upton Sinclair's novel Oil! burst into the literary limelight amid soaring petroleum profits and gaping inequalities in 1927. Whether telling the story of the land, the ordinary civilian, or the heirs to oil fortune, Sinclair skilfully paints a vivid picture of the effects of corporate corruption, greed and how the so called 'American Century' was born.
By turns a gripping family saga and anti-capitalist warning, Oil! ranks among the most important critiques of fossil energy ever written. An exhilarating novel, which anticipated how fossil fuels would shape the dilemmas of our present, Oil! looks toward a greener, more inclusive, and altogether more livable world yet to come.
