Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a Stanford professor who became fascinated with oil and everything it does to for us and to us. For years I traveled the world talking to the people who know petroleum: executives in the big oil companies, politicians and activists, militants and victims, spies and tribal chiefs. Blood Oil explains what I learned and how we can make our oil-cursed world better for all of us. 


I wrote

Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules that Run the World

By Leif Wenar,

Book cover of Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules that Run the World

What is my book about?

Putin, ISIS, Gaddafi, Saddam, Assad, the Ayatollahs, the Saudis… all got rich from oil money—our money, paid at the pump…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power

Leif Wenar Why did I love this book?

Most of us believe that the Big Oil has politicians in its pocket, and that oil drives America’s actions in the Middle East.

Yergin’s terrific history shows that there’s so much more: oil has fueled the growth of empires, it has decided the world wars, it has made and broken some of the world’s biggest fortunes. (You might also like the TV documentary made from the book, narrated by Donald Sutherland.)

By Daniel Yergin,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Prize as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Written by the author of "Shattered Peace" and "Energy Future", this book brings to life the tycoons, wildcatters, monopolists, regulators, presidents, generals and sheiks whose struggle for oil has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, transformed the destiny of Britain and the world and profoundly changed all our lives. Beginning with the first oil well of the 1850s and continuing up to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, it is a story of greed, gumption nad ingenuity, all in pursuit of "the prize" - worldwide economic, military and political mastery through the control of oil. The book includes…


Book cover of Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil

Leif Wenar Why did I love this book?

If you love villains, you’ll love this book (plus all these villains are real).

Psychopathic dictators, Russian arms dealers, ultra-violent warlords, and corrupt French presidents all show the evil oil can inspire—and the ruin it can bring to a country. I had to put this book down a few times; the depravity around oil can shock even those of us who think we’ve heard it all.

By Nicholas Shaxson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Poisoned Wells as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Each week the oil and gas fields of sub-Saharan Africa produce over a billion dollars worth of oil yet this rising tide of money is not promoting stability or development but instead is causing violence, poverty and stagnation. "Poisoned Wells" exposes the root causes of this paradox of poverty from plenty, and explores the mechanisms by which oil causes grave instabilities and corruption around the globe. Shaxson's access as a journalist to the key players in African oil results in an explosive story.


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Book cover of The Flight to Brassbright

The Flight to Brassbright By Lori Alden Holuta,

Constance is a wild, stubborn young girl growing up poor in a small industrial town in the late 1800's. Beneath her thread-worn exterior beats the heart of a dreamer and a wordsmith. But at age twelve, she’s orphaned. Running away to join the circus—like kids do in adventure books—seems like…

Book cover of The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations

Leif Wenar Why did I love this book?

This is an academic book that might knock your socks off. Ross shows why countries with lots of oil are more likely to suffer from dictators, civil wars, and worse economies—and even why they’re worse for women than for men.

Could oil become a blessing instead of a curse in these countries? Read Ross to find out.

By Michael L. Ross,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Oil Curse as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Countries that are rich in petroleum have less democracy, less economic stability, and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil. What explains this oil curse? And can it be fixed? In this groundbreaking analysis, Michael L. Ross looks at how developing nations are shaped by their mineral wealth--and how they can turn oil from a curse into a blessing. Ross traces the oil curse to the upheaval of the 1970s, when oil prices soared and governments across the developing world seized control of their countries' oil industries. Before nationalization, the oil-rich countries looked much like the rest of the…


Book cover of King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa

Leif Wenar Why did I love this book?

Oil isn’t the only natural resource that can curse: the Belgian colonizers inflicted decades of extraordinary brutality on the peoples of the Congo while extracting their ivory and rubber.

Hochschild paints horrific vistas of extreme greed and violence, and also tells the stories of the heroic individuals who resisted it. I didn’t know much about real ‘The Heart of Darkness’ before reading this book—now I know that the true savages were the Europeans.

By Adam Hochschild,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked King Leopold's Ghost as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize, King Leopold's Ghost is the true and haunting account of Leopold's brutal regime and its lasting effect on a ruined nation. With an introduction by award-winning novelist Barbara Kingsolver.

In the late nineteenth century, when the great powers in Europe were tearing Africa apart and seizing ownership of land for themselves, King Leopold of Belgium took hold of the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. In his devastatingly barbarous colonization of this area, Leopold stole its rubber and ivory, pummelled its people and set up a ruthless regime that would reduce…


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Book cover of No, You're Crazy

No, You're Crazy By Jeff Beamish,

When sixteen-year-old Ashlee Sutton's home life falls apart, she is beset by a rare mental illness that makes her believe she's clairvoyant. While most people scoff at her, she begins demonstrating an uncanny knack for sometimes predicting the future, using what could either be pure luck or something more remarkable.…

Book cover of Oil!

Leif Wenar Why did I love this book?

You may have seen There Will Be Blood, which won Daniel Day Lewis an Academy Award.

Sinclair’s novel (which inspired the film) satirizes the petroleum-fueled tycoons and preachers of Southern California a century ago. For an extra treat, follow this novel with Darren Dochuk’s Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America, which weaves together the stories of American oil, American religion, and the great schism within today’s Republican Party.

By Upton Sinclair,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Oil! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Oil! Upton Sinclair fashioned a novel out of the oil scandals of the Harding administration, providing in the process a detailed picture of the development of the oil industry in Southern California. Bribery of public officials, class warfare, and international rivalry over oil production are the context for Sinclair's story of a genial independent oil developer and his son, whose sympathy with the oilfield workers and socialist organizers fuels a running debate with his father. Senators, small investors, oil magnates, a Hollywood film star, and a crusading evangelist people the pages of this lively novel.


Explore my book 😀

Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules that Run the World

By Leif Wenar,

Book cover of Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules that Run the World

What is my book about?

Putin, ISIS, Gaddafi, Saddam, Assad, the Ayatollahs, the Saudis… all got rich from oil money—our money, paid at the pump for gasoline. Why are we in business with these men of blood?

This book finds the answer in an ancient rule that once legalized the slave trade, genocide and apartheid, and zombies on in today’s multi-trillion dollar oil market, sending our money to autocrats and extremists worldwide, and returning us endless wars, threats, and crises. Upgrading world trade will make us more secure at home, more trusted abroad, and more agile with climate change. My aim Blood Oil is to show how we can act today to end the world’s ‘oil curse,’ and to create a more united human future.

Book cover of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power
Book cover of Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil
Book cover of The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations

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