Breaking Rockefeller: The Incredible Story of the Ambitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Marcus Samuel Jr. is an unorthodox Jewish merchant trader. Henri Deterding is a take-no-prisoners oilman. In 1889, John D. Rockefeller is at the peak of his power. Having annihilated all competition and dominating the oil market, even the US government is wary of challenging Standard Oil. The Standard never loses - that is until Samuel and Deterding team up to form Royal Dutch Shell. A riveting account of ambition, oil and greed, Breaking Rockefeller traces Samuel and Deterding's rise to the top of the oil industry, and the collapse of Rockefeller's monopoly.

Reviews

Breaking Rockefeller emulates the best oil literature, in which geology and geopolitics go hand in hand.
The Wall Street Journal

[Marcus Samuel and Henri Deterdings]story, though not new, is grippingly retold in Breaking Rockefeller. . . . The guts, greed and gusto of this cast of characters are what give the book its vigor. . . . The book is timely in an era when Americas shale revolution has upset the OPEC cartels efforts to control the worlds oil markets, and Eastern Europe struggles to free its gas markets from dependence on Russias Gazprom. It is a vivid reminder of the dangers of monopolies, and of the merits of no-holds barred competition and technological upheaval.
The Economist

It is the authors love affair (it can be called nothing less) with oil itself that most effectively entices the reader to make her way through these pages. . . .When Doran talks about [oil], it is with a sensuality of language comparable to that of the most decadent of gourmets. . . .Peter Dorans writing style is lively, accessible and sometimes slightly breathless. Each one of his chapters ends with a dramatic, almost apocalyptic-sounding statement that leads neatly to the next one. It works. Even the most ardent of fossil fuel haters will findBreaking Rockefellerhard to resist.
The Post and Courier

Why havent you heard [Marcus Samuels] full story before Because his history is more elusive than a shell game: He had all of his papers and correspondence burned. Now Doran has gathered enough secondary evidence to tell his tale.
TheNew York Post(a must-read book of the week)

InBreaking Rockefeller, author and energy expert Peter B. Doran tells the story of an unlikely partnership that dared to take onand take downRockefeller. . . .[A] well-researched history.
TheFort Worth Star-Telegram

Doran has written a vastly entertaining book.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

An expansive and engaging overview of the first tumultuous decades of the oil industry. His vigorous prose and persuasive narrative manage to capture all of the major players and events of that industrys first 50 years . . .I used to tell readers who want to understand the history of the oil industry to read famed oil historianDaniel Yergins Pulitzer Prize-winningThe Prize. I still do. But now I say that they should read DoransBreaking Rockefellertoo.It really is a ripping nonfiction yarn that illuminates the oil industrys formative years.
Bizmology

[A] lively history of the early petroleum industry. . . . Doran's vigorous narrative conveys the drama of the oil industry in its heroic days, featuring grueling stretches of dry wells followed by marathon gushers; lurid, greedy oil boomtowns; and the wars, revolutions, and production gluts that made the business a roller-coaster. He's also good at untangling the underlying dynamics of finance, marketing, technology, and transportation. The result is an entertaining portrait of the oil industry's past and the business forces that still shape its present.
Publishers Weekly

[Dorans] main accomplishment is his illumination of the saga of how Marcus Samuel Jr. and Henri Deterding became rivals in the world oil trade and then, around the turn of the century, found enough common interest to attack the Standard Oil juggernaut from Japan, Russia, and elsewhere outside the U.S. . . . A readable popular history told largely through the actions of swashbuckling tycoons.
Kirkus Reviews

Doran is a gifted writer and storyteller; his first-rate history and introduction to the petroleum business . . . delivers a page-turner sure to appeal to economists, historians, political scientists, and general readers interested in global economics.
Library Journal

Peter Dorans Breaking Rockefeller is the best kind of history, telling great stories, providing fascinating detail, and reflecting real knowledge. In this story of the origins of the modern oil industry, there are plenty of lessons for the present too.
Anne Applebaum,Pulitzer Prize-winning author ofGulag: A History andIron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 19441956

Peter Dorans enthralling account of the early days of the oil industryparticularly the mano-a-mano battle between a Jewish merchant in England and the original industry titan, John D. Rockefellerreads like a thriller without sacrificing good solid scholarship. With some relevant observations for our own time, this is a gem of a book.
Robert Kagan, New York Timesbestselling author ofOf Paradise and Power and The World America Made

Peter Doran tells a riveting and exciting account of the formation of Royal Dutch Shell and how it managed to stand up to Standard Oil at the turn of the 19th century. With color and delight, he has captured the nature of the oil business at the time in this well-researched volume.
Anders slund, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council

Breaking Rockefeller is fast-paced yet anchored by a treasure of fascinating detail. It is an insightful historical backgrounder for today's global energy politics.
Robert D. Kaplan, Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security and author of In Europe's Shadow

Author Bio

Peter B. Doranis vice president for research at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington, D.C., where he leads the center's energy horizons and defense programs.He is the author of the popular "History of Oil" podcast on iTunes. A recognized expert on international affairs and national security, his articles have appeared inForeign Policy, Defense News, National Review,The American Spectator, and theJournal of Energy Security. His analysis and commentary are regularly featured in U.S. and European media, such as Fox News,TheWall Street Journal, andNewsweek. He holds a master's degree from Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies.