A sweeping tale that uses both oil and faith to paint a panoramic portrait of post–Civil War American history.
A history of America’s oil industry with an emphasis on its interplay with Christianity throughout the decades.
Asserting that both oil and faith shaped the United States significantly through its years of ascendancy, Dochuk (History/Univ. of Notre Dame; From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism, 2010) sets out to identify how these two forces related through the so-called American Century. Though his lengthy study does not necessarily prove an organic relationship between oil and faith—in many instances, the connections were simply caused by the omnipresence of Christianity in a culture in which oil was asserting itself—the author ably shows how these connections shaped American history. Beginning with the oil discoveries in Pennsylvania after the Civil War, which solidified John D. Rockefeller as the paragon of Eastern oil barons, Dochuk explores the first “wildcatters” who set out to compete with Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, resulting in a continuous cycle of booms and busts. Eventually, with oil discoveries in Texas and Oklahoma, the center of the industry moved west. At every step, the church was present in these new settlements, attempting to curb the wild influences of oilmen. At the same time, many of the industry’s leaders were committed Christians, seeing in their work a divine calling and often using their wealth to support religious causes. The philanthropy of the Rockefellers, the Pews, and others remains as a testament to these convictions. As the power of American oil waned after World War II, its influence became more centered upon political movements and the rise of Evangelicalism. Dochuk notes that evangelist Billy Graham was funded by oil figures early in his career, and the industry has been involved in the development of countless organizations, from the Fuller Theological Seminary to Oral Roberts University. The Bush family’s oil ties round out this intriguing book.
A sweeping tale that uses both oil and faith to paint a panoramic portrait of post–Civil War American history.Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-465-06086-3
Page Count: 672
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
