MixedThe New York TimesHaving provided a fresh perspective [..] [Puri] offers brief and intelligent speculation, but mostly proceeds to simply recount the imperial histories of major countries or parts of the world. Much of this is well written, comprehensive and judicious, but it is still potted history. Having introduced a fascinating subject, Puri declines to fully engage and explore his own thesis. He seems to imply that this task is left to the reader, but that leaves too much to us, and lets the author of this stimulating book off the hook too easily.
Rachel Maddow
PositiveThe New York Times Book Review... a rollickingly well-written book, filled with fascinating, exciting and alarming stories about the impact of the oil and gas industry on the world today ... while the tone throughout is one of shock, amazement and condemnation, the book is not as radical in its conclusions as readers might have anticipated. Maddow advocates more stringent rules on Western companies aiding foreign corruption. And she argues for an end to subsidies for the oil and gas industry, urging that it \'pay for what it does.\' I assume that means a carbon tax ... Blowou is a brilliant description of many of the problems caused by our reliance on fossil fuels. But it does not provide a path out of the darkness.
Adam Tooze
RaveThe New York Times Book Review\"If journalism is the first rough draft of history, Tooze’s book is the second draft. A distinguished scholar with a deep grasp of financial markets, Tooze knows that it is a challenge to gain perspective on events when they have not yet played out. He points out that a 10-year-old history of the crash of 1929 would have been written in 1939, when most of its consequences were ongoing and unresolved. But still he has persisted and produced an intelligent explanation of the mechanisms that produced the crisis and the response to it ... One of the great strengths of Tooze’s book is to demonstrate the deeply intertwined nature of the European and American financial systems.\
