Summary of Rachel Maddow's Blowout

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The oil industry was the result of a big bang that occurred in 1859 when Edwin Drake and his hired man, Uncle Billy Smith, pulled the equivalent of maybe twenty forty-two-gallon barrels of crude oil from the ground on a good day. The first commercially viable gas-powered engine, and the ensuing addiction, were still a few generations away.

#2 By 1875, Rockefeller had taken control of every major refining center in the country. His company, Standard Oil, shipped a million barrels of refined oil in a single year. The most widely used lighting oil at the time, which was struck from soft coal, was dirty; kerosene from petroleum was just the thing to illuminate the clean, bright new future.

#3 The Big Trust was a term used in the nineteenth century to describe monopoly, and the most powerful trust was the Rockefeller-controlled Oil Trust. John D. Rockefeller was the richest and most powerful commodity producer on the continent.

#4 The most common explanation for Rockefeller’s success was that he was just following the rules of his time. The boundaries of capitalism and democracy in America were still being drawn, and the rules of the game still being written.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669390534

IRB Media

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Insights on Rachel Maddow's Blowout

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 18

Insights from Chapter 19

Insights from Chapter 20

Insights from Chapter 21

Insights from Chapter 22

Insights from Chapter 23

Insights from Chapter 24

Insights from Chapter 25

Insights from Chapter 26

Insights from Chapter 27

Insights from Chapter 28

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The oil industry was the result of a big bang that occurred in 1859 when Edwin Drake and his hired man, Uncle Billy Smith, pulled the equivalent of maybe twenty forty-two-gallon barrels of crude oil from the ground on a good day. The first commercially viable gas-powered engine, and the ensuing addiction, were still a few generations away.

#2

By 1875, Rockefeller had taken control of every major refining center in the country. His company, Standard Oil, shipped a million barrels of refined oil in a single year. The most widely used lighting oil at the time, which was struck from soft coal, was dirty; kerosene from petroleum was just the thing to illuminate the clean, bright new future.

#3

The Big Trust was a term used in the nineteenth century to describe monopoly, and the most powerful trust was the Rockefeller-controlled Oil Trust. John D. Rockefeller was the richest and most powerful commodity producer on the continent.

#4

The most common explanation for Rockefeller’s success was that he was just following the rules of his time. The boundaries of capitalism and democracy in America were still being drawn, and the rules of the game still being written.

#5

John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, had many theories about his spectacular rise. He believed that the power to make money was a gift from God, and that it was his duty to make money and use it for the good of his fellow man.

#6

The history of oil and gas companies has been one of technological innovation and new fortunes. For example, the Koch family, famous for funding right-wing causes and politicians, made its fortune from petroleum engineer Fred Koch's discovering a better and cheaper method for making gasoline from crude oil.

#7

The extraction of fossil fuels is not like sticking a straw into a Big Gulp schooner and gently drawing it out. It is more like sticking that straw into a sponge and having at it.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The United States was in need of more natural gas, which was the cleanest of all fuels. Project Rulison was designed to solve this problem by fracturing tight rock to release the gas within.

#2

The American government partnered with an oil company to extract nuclear energy from the ground in 1969. The Project Rulison team was sure that their new fracking technique would work, and they were already promoting it as America’s next big technological leap.

#3

The success of Project Rulison was important to the AEC and its Atoms for Peace initiative. American scientists and engineers had brought the world previously unimaginable nuclear devastation and human catastrophe, but now they were working toward nuclear applications in energy, medicine, agriculture, and transportation.

#4

The head of the Atomic Energy Commission, Glenn Seaborg, was promoting the development of portable