The Greatest Gamblers: The Epic of American Oil Exploration

A great treatise on the oil industry and the advances made over the years. It would be wonderful for people to have a better interpretation of how oil and gas has played such a vital role in our country's - and the world's - evolution over the last 150 years!

I'm assuming few are likely to read this book unless they're specifically researching the history oil and gas industry. That's a shame. Although this is a fairly long, very specific work last updated over 25 years ago, it's surprisingly engaging and well-written. Knowles grew up in an oil family and was a successful oilwoman in her own right. She knows the industry's history inside and out, managing grand overviews of the associated issues and technical developments as easily as she shares anecdotes and brief biographies. She's never overly-technical, focusing repeatedly on just what the title suggests: the thrill and risk of the hunt, the windfall of discovery, and the drive to risk it all and do it again. The reader can't help but gain a basic understanding of the science behind it all, but the academic benefit is incidental-there are too many fascinating tales being told to notice it along the way.The roles of men like John D. Rockefeller, Harry Sinclair, E.W. Marland, and others, mix with stories from less-recognized names to cover everything from Edwin Drake's original oil strike in Titusville, PA, in 1959, to the energy crisis of the 1970s. The original edition of the book was published in 1959, so most of the focus is on the late 19th century and early 20th. The story begins in Pennsylvania, then moves to Texas & Oklahoma, with Mexico, California, Louisiana, Illinois, and a few other places visited along the way. While I initially found Knowles' update of events since 1959 rather dry compared to the rest of the work, her take on environmental concerns, the Alaskan pipeline, and the Energy Crisis (a contemporary event at the time) are quite intriguing. It's always good to hear plausible arguments for the 'other side' of the story.I'd recommend this book highly for those researching the oil & gas industry, Oklahoma history (the stories from various Oklahoma boomtowns alone are worth getting the book), or general American history in the late-19th and early-20th century. Although apparently out-of-print, it's worth tracking down a copy. Because it would be hard to convince the casual reader of _The Davinci Code_ or Harry Potter that this is a great 'next read', I stuck with 4 stars instead of 5.

I'm assuming few are likely to read this book unless they're specifically researching the history oil and gas industry. That's a shame. Although this is a fairly long, very specific work last updated over 25 years ago, it's surprisingly engaging and well-written. Knowles grew up in an oil family and was a successful oilwoman in her own right. She knows the industry's history inside and out, managing grand overviews of the associated issues and technical developments as easily as she shares anecdotes and brief biographies. She's never overly-technical, focusing repeatedly on just what the title suggests: the thrill and risk of the hunt, the windfall of discovery, and the drive to risk it all and do it again. The reader can't help but gain a basic understanding of the science behind it all, but the academic benefit is incidental-there are too many fascinating tales being told to notice it along the way.The roles of men like John D. Rockefeller, Harry Sinclair, E.W. Marland, and others, mix with stories from less-recognized names to cover everything from Edwin Drake's original oil strike in Titusville, PA, in 1959, to the energy crisis of the 1970s. The original edition of the book was published in 1959, so most of the focus is on the late 19th century and early 20th. The story begins in Pennsylvania, then moves to Texas & Oklahoma, with Mexico, California, Louisiana, Illinois, and a few other places visited along the way. While I initially found Knowles' update of events since 1959 rather dry compared to the rest of the work, her take on environmental concerns, the Alaskan pipeline, and the Energy Crisis (a contemporary event at the time) are quite intriguing. It's always good to hear plausible arguments for the `other side' of the story.I'd recommend this book highly for those researching the oil & gas industry, Oklahoma history (the stories from various Oklahoma boomtowns alone are worth getting the book), or general American history in the late-19th and early-20th century. Although apparently out-of-print, it's worth tracking down a copy. Because it would be hard to convince the casual reader of _The Davinci Code_ or Harry Potter that this is a great `next read', I stuck with 4 stars instead of 5.