Oil is fundamental to our understanding of the climate crisis. But despite its starring role, the dominance of oil in the global energy system is a relatively recent phenomenon, with the industry only really taking off after the Second World War. So how, in just a few decades, did oil become so integral to American power and to our understanding of global capitalism?
In this episode of the Break Down, Adrienne and Adam Hanieh break down the history and geopolitics of oil and imperialism, and explore how the petrochemicals and plastics that now permeate our lives, from the foods we eat to the clothes we wear and everything in between, are making it increasingly difficult to challenge the power of the fossil fuel industry.
Adam Hanieh is Professor of Political Economy and Global Development at the University of Exeter and an award-winning author. His latest book, Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market (Verso) is out September 2024.
Further Reading
Adam Hanieh, "Every Molecule of Hydrocarbon Will Come Out", The New York Review of Books.
Adam Hanieh, "Petrochemical Empire", New Left Review.
Andreas Malm, Fossil Capital, Verso (2016).
Hannah Appel, The Licit Life of Capitalism: US Oil in Equatorial Guinea, Duke University Press (2019).
Rebecca Altman, "How Bad Are Plastics Really?", The Atlantic.
