Research Catalog

Title

The oil road : journeys from the Caspian Sea to the city of London / James Marriott and Mika Minio-Paluello.

Author

Marriott, James.

Publication

London ; Brooklyn, NY : Verso, 2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Minio-Paluello, Mika.

Description

xiv, 362 p. : ill., maps; 25 cm

Summary

In a unique journey from the oil fields of the Caspian Sea to the refineries and financial centres of Northern Europe, James Marriott and Mika Minio-Paluello track the concealed routes along which flows the lifeblood of our economy. The stupendous resource of Azerbaijani crude has long inspired dreams of a world remade. From the revolutionary Futurism of the capital city, Baku, in the 1920s to the unblinking Capitalism of modern London, the drive to control the regionʹs oil reserves -- and hence people and events -- has shattered environments and shaped societies. In The Oil Road, the human scale of village life in the Caucasus Mountains and the plains of Anatolia is suddenly, and sometimes fatally, confronted by the almost ungraspable scale of the oil corporation BP. Pipelines and tanker routes tie the fraying social democracies of Italy, Austria and Germany to the repressive regimes of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. A web of financial and political institutions in London stitches together the lives of metropolis and village. -- Jacket.

Subject

• Petroleum industry and trade > Azerbaijan > Baku
• Petroleum industry and trade > Europe
• Caspian Sea

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [345]-353) and index.

Contents

Part I. The wells. 1. It has to be the Caspian -- 2. You can see where the president gets his iron gloves -- 3. They alone can light for us the road to the promised land -- 4. Lots of empty skyscrapers that we can't keep clean --- Part II. The road. 5. The wide stream of oil gushed over the greasy earth -- 6. If the pipelinebBurns, I'll burn with it -- 7. Schrader's instruction is paper for the toilet -- 8. Do you have any books? -- 9. Without having to amend local laws, we went above or around them by using a treaty -- 10. We closed it down to the media -- 11. We live in a corridor of violence -- 12. It is ash to the eyes -- 13. I will stop you, I'll smash your camera! -- 14. No-one wants this pipeline on their CV. It's an embarrassment -- 15. The trench sides could collapse on top of children -- 16. Don't sleep -- save your sea -- Part III. The ship. 17. Military forces sanitise the area ahead of the merchant ships -- Part IV. The road. 18. They have long arms-- like the arms of an octopus -- 19. The Caspian! -- Part V. The factory. 20. This is the Auschwitz Generation, and there's no arguing with them -- 21. A liquid distilled from a fossilised ecosystem.

Call Number

JBE 13-956

ISBN

• 9781844676460 (hardback : alk. paper)
• 1844676463 (hardback : alk. paper)
• 9781844679270 (ebook)
• 1844679276 (ebook)
• 9781844676453
• 1844676455

LCCN

2012019763

OCLC

601109084

Author

Marriott, James.

Title

The oil road : journeys from the Caspian Sea to the city of London / James Marriott and Mika Minio-Paluello.

Imprint

London ; Brooklyn, NY : Verso, 2012.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (p. [345]-353) and index.

Added Author

Minio-Paluello, Mika.

Research Call Number

JBE 13-956