The Oil and the Glory

The Oil and the Glory: The Pursuit of Empire and Fortune on the Caspian Sea by Steve LeVine.

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Steve LeVine covered Central Asia and the Caucasus for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for 11 years — starting two weeks after the Soviet collapse through 2003. From 1988-1991, LeVine was Newsweek's Pakistan-based correspondent for that country and Afghanistan. While the book doesn't have the documented rigor of say Taubman's biography on Khruschev it is quite clear that Steve knows very well the region; central Asia, the Caucasus and Russia. Moreover the book is vivid in both historical detail and the well rounded detail on the cast of players. It's importance is not only in shedding light the light on the region it covers, but even more so into understanding the dynamics at play in some of world's most influential corporations. The book has a great balance of historical context and a detailed account of the power struggles around the oil in the Caspian basin. I will add in the coming days a post with some memorable quotes from the book, for the time being take a look at the video of a talk Steve LeVine gave us at Google. Thank you Steve, great book!





Steve keeps a blog on central Asia, Caucasus and Russia.

Comments

Steve said…
Boris, thanks for taking the time to read and review. If anyone is so inclined, I'm glad to talk about the book or the subject matter. Best,

Steve LeVine, author
The Oil and the Glory (Random House)
http://www.oilandglory.com
December 3, 2007 at 9:24 PM
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