{"product_id":"the-secret-world-of-oil-9781781688670","title":"The Secret World of Oil","description":"The oil industry provides the lifeblood of modern civilization, and bestselling books have been written about the industry and even individual companies in it, like ExxonMobil. But the modern oil industry is an amazingly shady meeting ground of fixers, gangsters, dictators, competing governments, and multinational corporations, and until now, no book has set out to tell the story of this largely hidden world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe global fleet of some 11,000 tankers--that's tripled during the past decade--moves approximately 2 billion metric tons of oil annually. And every stage of the route, from discovery to consumption, is tainted by corruption and violence, even if little of that is visible to the public. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBased on trips to New York, Washington, Houston, London, Paris, Geneva, Phnom Penh, Dakar, Lagos, Baku, and Moscow, among other far-flung locals, \u003ci\u003eThe Secret World of Oil\u003c\/i\u003e includes up-close portraits of a shadowy Baku-based trader; a high-flying London fixer; and an oil dictator's playboy son who has to choose one of his eleven luxury vehicles when he heads out to party in Los Angeles. Supported by funding from the prestigious Open Society, this is both an entertaining global travelogue and a major work of investigative reporting.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKen Silverstein\u003c\/b\u003e is a Senior Investigative Reporter with First Look Media. He has been a Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University and at Open Society Foundations. He served as Washington Editor of \u003ci\u003eHarper's Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e from 2006 to 2010. Previously on the staff of the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e, Silverstein has also written for \u003ci\u003eMother Jones\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWallpaper\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWashington Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eNation\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSlate\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSalon\u003c\/i\u003e, and many other publications.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Verso","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50362976698642,"sku":"9781781688670","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_23b713f4-f679-41d9-b294-0a28c25d9d49.jpg?v=1728401045","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-secret-world-of-oil-9781781688670","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}