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Some of the techniques listed in Dear Rachel Maddow: A Novel may require a sound knowledge of Hypnosis, users are advised to either leave those sections or must have a basic understanding of the subject before practicing them. Sep 07, Jimmie rated it really liked it. This book takes a little while to get off the ground, but eventually it soars. View all 9 comments.
Oct 03, Sahitya rated it it was amazing Shelves: read , non-fiction , politics-feminism-religion , favorites , 5-star. Beginning with the Oil boom in the US in the late 19th century and ending with some conclusions of the Mueller report, this really is the saga of the Oil and Gas industry across the globe and years and how it has changed everything.
The use of fossil fuels have changed the way we live, but it has also meant the industry has become a major power player across the world in a way that threatens geopolitical stability but also the daily lives of people living across the US.
The story of Putin, ExxonMobil and Rex Tillerson , the Oil companies and their owners in Russia and the few people who were brave enough to oppose the leader plays out like a gangster thriller, and while I was initially unsure what was the point of it all, by the end I realized that as long as the industry players work hand in hand with dictators and let them interfere in global democracies with impunity, the world is only gonna end up in more chaos.
There are quite a few important figures whom we get to know more about in the book along with their beliefs and methods and motivations, and it was fascinating to see how the common thread across all of them was greed and some kind of narcissism. Rachel is neutral for the most part, giving us all the information so that we can form our own opinions, but her sarcasm does come out at times which I enjoyed.
I also think the best way to enjoy this book is reading while simultaneously listening to the audio, because her narration brings a lot of life to what can feel like a very long story.
I had fun listening to it, I also felt shocked and terrified and hopeless. As a news junkie since childhood, I knew something about most of the subjects that Maddow covers in her over-arching view of the oil industry at work throughout the world. Even my most pessimistic self would not have imagined the inner workings of the U. This is my first time reading a book by Rachel Maddow who I have enjoyed watching on television. She presents her information in a conversational tone. The facts are backed up with quotations, statistics, etc, which are more fully delineated in the Sources section provided at the end of the book.
And there are so many outrageous events detailed in Blowout. From very basic concepts such as why does an industry that has historically had some of, if not the highest profits in United States history still receive annual tax breaks they were initially given as incentives to explore?
And what about the huge increase in earthquakes that seemed to in the area of fracking? These are just three areas dealt with in depth. More reasons why Putin would want to destabilize that country. So, highly recommended.
It is a very readable source on the oil industry, the new Russia, the state of our democracy, and our potential future. A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review. View all 14 comments. I love Rachel Maddow and I think that she is brilliant. This non-fiction was my book group choice yesterday.
It made for an interesting discussion. Most of the group are fans of the author I felt that reading that book first helped me understand her method of presenting complicated data. The book is well-written and meticulously researched.
I am impressed at how thorough Maddow is with her research and analysis. She apparently was attempting to understand why Russia meddled in our election and ended up completing an academic research and analysis of the oil and gas industry.
Maddow also provided detailed information about Vladimir Putin as well as a mini biography of Rex Tillerson. The author does an excellent job revealing historical texture to the current oil and gas industry. She also provides one of the best descriptions of fracking I have come across. When considering the earthquakes and the risks of contaminating water and soil with very toxic chemicals; why would anyone allow fracking is something I do not understand.
I learned a lot about the Russians, the petroleum industry and fracking. Maddow does an excellent job putting complex data into easy to understand information. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is fifteen hours and thirty-three minutes. I particularly enjoyed listening to Maddow narrate the book. View all 4 comments. You don't see the forest for the trees until the end of this book.
In chapter after chapter, Rhodes Scholar and MSNBC political talk show host Rachel Maddow focuses the reader's attention on a wide range of loosely-related, but highly-detailed, stories told in long form journalism style. By the end, a broader pattern emerges and it becomes clearer that Blowout is about the three subjects listed in its subtitle: 1 The Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth Maddow makes the case that the globa You don't see the forest for the trees until the end of this book.
By the end, a broader pattern emerges and it becomes clearer that Blowout is about the three subjects listed in its subtitle: 1 The Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth Maddow makes the case that the global oil and gas industry has been more obsessed with profit than any other industry due to the sheer magnitude of profits available, ever since John D. Rockefeller launched it in the mid-nineteenth century.
She describes vast destruction to the environment caused by oil and gas extraction, due to frequent leaks and other failures, but also due to best practices, as, for example, the Oklahoma earthquake swarms triggered by injection wells as a part of the fracking process.
Although she aims her signature snark at the titans and shills of the giant corporations in the oil and gas business, she doesn't really blame them for being what they are. What is the point of outrage at oil and gas producers? What good can possibly come of it? It's like being indignant when a lion takes down and eats a gazelle. You can't really blame the lion. Instead, Putin opted for a shorter and easier path, which solved two problems: it gave him permanent job security, and it saved Russia the pain in the butt of actually building itself a modern twenty-first-century economy and government.
Putin's most fateful decision for his country was that oil and gas wouldn't just be the profitable crown jewel in Russia's diversified economic array; it would be Russia's everything. And Putin would exercise almost complete control over it and use it in whatever way he saw fit. Faced with this obstacle, Maddow argues that Putin fell back on hacking as a geopolitical strategy. It's cheap. It's doable, and it doesn't require making anybody think better of Russia.
The agents of the Kremlin just have to tell the lies often enough and loud enough to sow doubt and dissension, to prove that leaders and governments and institutions in the United States are just as crappy as Russia's.
Blowout is stronger on defining problems than proposing solutions. In the end, Maddow calls on activists, journalists, and voters "to preserve and protect our democracies from the influence of the industry, and from the rogue-state, anti-democracy behemoth it has fueled in Russia," because "Democracy either wins this one or disappears.
It oughtta be a blowout. Those who agree with Maddow will like it and those who don't probably won't. View all 6 comments. Jan 13, Dan rated it liked it. Blowout by Rachel Maddow Oil and its corruption have had a massive impact on our world to be sure. Maddow attempts to tell us this using many current examples and is mostly successful in her effort.
First the positive. Maddow, a Rhodes Scholar, has a nose for what is important. I feel that all of the oil related threads covered in this book are of importance and, individually, are interesting. Although she uses a few too many idioms at times, her sentence structure and thought processes are ea Blowout by Rachel Maddow Oil and its corruption have had a massive impact on our world to be sure. Although she uses a few too many idioms at times, her sentence structure and thought processes are easy to follow.
Maddow may be more knowledgeable about political impacts of big oil than just about anybody. She has spent countless hours on her talk show discussing the topic and interviewing knowledgeable people. Then the negative. The topic as presented is unwieldy. There was not enough time spent writing, researching or editing the book. It is more of a current events book in a way. The major and minor threads, while interesting, had little in common beyond oil.
View all 5 comments. This amazing and brilliant book gets five stars from me. I'm not normally known for reading non-fiction--especially current events usually make me furious--but I can highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in returning a minimum of democracy to democratic governments and breaking the strangle-hold of big industry, not just the oil and gas industry, on governments east and west. Very well researched and, as one might expect from Rachel Maddow, she manages also to spice the book wi This amazing and brilliant book gets five stars from me.
Very well researched and, as one might expect from Rachel Maddow, she manages also to spice the book with humour, black-humour to be sure, but funny nevertheless. Read it! View 1 comment. Blowout What the Frack is going on with the oil and gas industry?
How did we, as a Democratic country, get to this point? Regardless of age, sex, race, religion, political beliefs, etc. Rachel Maddow brings it all together and makes this complicated Blowout! Rachel Maddow brings it all together and makes this complicated issue, easy to understand. She explains the power, complexities, and political gamesmanship behind fracking.
How Yeltsin literally gave the Russisn Presidency to Putin, and how and why Putin used the oil industry to maintain his power, by sending the crude oil to its biggest oil rival, the USA. From Oklahoma City to Russia to Siberia and Equatorial Guinea, we see how oil and the crude pollutants from fracking, made by unsafe drilling; an industry that has taken far more from the earth than it ever gave.
ExxonMobil and Rex Tillerson are examples of the mindless incompetence that make full transparency necessary. We hold the responsibility of separating the corporate from the villains. It's all here, and so essential to understanding exactly what is happening, and why. One of the things I admire and live about Rachel Maddow is how she will lay a foundation by sharing the history and importance of issues, policies and subjects.
By explaining both sides, we can decide for ourselves where we stand without being preached at and told what to believe. Her wit, candor, humility and her original spin, for me, make her a woman who uses her intelligence to make people aware, for the greater good.
This book is an example of just that. I learned so much about the oil industry, the consequences of non transparency and the willingness to deceive to win. Mostly I learned we need to re-think the need vs. Thank you for this exceptional, necessary and timely book, Rachel. Thank you to netgalley for sharing this requested e-book ARC for review. Sep 30, Nancy rated it it was amazing Shelves: netgalley. I thought I should read Blowout by Rachel Maddow. Should being the giveaway word to my motivation.
Instead of a dose of medicine that's good for me but hard to swallow, it was a terrifying funhouse ride that totally engaged my attention! Maddow weaves together a narrative of how we 'got to here' that illumines the present. Maddow lays out the oil industry's history from Standard Oil to fracking to Putin's dream of Russia becoming the world's fuel provider to trolls on Facebook disseminating disco I thought I should read Blowout by Rachel Maddow.
Maddow lays out the oil industry's history from Standard Oil to fracking to Putin's dream of Russia becoming the world's fuel provider to trolls on Facebook disseminating discord.
The oil industry has always been too big and wealthy and powerful to control, starting with John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil which drove out or took over the competition. The values have not changed; anything goes in the pursuit of increased production and mindboggling wealth. And power. Don't forget the obscene power.
The oil industry has always looked for better ways to get to the oil, using nuclear bombs and ocean drilling and fracking. Sure, messes happen. The best clean up tool they have developed is a big stick of paper towels.
Fracking was going to save the day! Years worth of 'clean' gas. So what if Oklahoma suffered earthquakes in ? I didn't know how Putin had gambled everything on the fossil fuel industry bringing Russia money and power across the globe. But they needed the technology to make it happen. Those pesky sanctions got in their way. Business and capitalism is amoral; politics and justice and fairness are irrelevant.
The prime directive is making money. You lobby for the best tax deals, pay workers the lowest wages possible, make deals with the Devil--if you are killing people, or the entire planet, cover it up and carry on making the big bucks. The damage fossil fuels are doing to the planet is happening NOW, has been happening for a long time before we wised up to it.
It isn't just when we take a jet or when we eat a half-pound burger or drive the kids to school. Getting that gas out of the ground it escapes. Lots of it. From the get-go, fossil fuels damage our world. Maddow writes, Coal is done, and so is gas and oil but they don't know it yet. Oh, the last desperate gasps of the old world struggling to hold on.
I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. Apr 08, David Rubenstein rated it it was amazing Shelves: audiobook , business , history , politics. This is a marvelous book about the oil and gas industries. It is mostly about companies in the United States, but there are significant diversions into a couple of other countries, including Russia. While I believe that Donald Trump is thoroughly corrupt, he really plays second fiddle to Vladimir Putin, who is brazenly corrupt an order of magnitude worse.
That's really saying something! It is well known that large oil and gas reserves help to keep some countries in the dark ages. Rich despotic le This is a marvelous book about the oil and gas industries. Rich despotic leaders squash any attempts to promote democracy.
But the truth is, these despots are assisted by big oil companies. They seem to use the logic that "if we don't make a deal with this despot, some other company will do it. I did not read this book--I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author, Rachel Maddow. She reads her book exactly how she talks on television, in a folksy, dry-humor, sarcastic tone throughout. And, she sings! Yes, she reads her book just as if she were sitting next to you.
It's wonderful! Thorough, interesting and excellent. Rachel Maddow doesn't know how to be anything but excellent. Rachel Maddow narrated her own book which in my view elevates it! View all 7 comments. Jan 20, Mikey B. This is a scathing work on the petroleum industry — oil and the newly expanding natural gas industries. Before I go on, let me say that like many others, I am a consumer of these products, being very happy to heat my home these January days with natural gas — and of course use high-grade oil on those air flights I take when traveling.
The author, Rachel Maddow, exposes ho This is a scathing work on the petroleum industry — oil and the newly expanding natural gas industries. The author, Rachel Maddow, exposes how ExxonMobil is an entity onto itself — and how it circumvented the sanctions of the Obama era on Russia. They have been trying to deny climate change for years. The author brings up the state of Oklahoma where the natural gas industry was being taxed only minimally, but schools were severely underfunded.
When earthquakes, due to fracking, were occurring more frequently than in California the petroleum companies, even those homegrown in Oklahoma, were denying responsibility. These companies had close ties to the state government, until at some point the citizens had had enough. There was a lot of Russia bashing in this book — and I suppose much of it justified.
However, I felt that Ukraine was painted too much with a rosy brush, when in fact it too is highly corrupted; its very low on transparency indexes and not so good with human rights. Also I could not help comparing Russia to another petro-state namely Saudi Arabia and other Arab states as well which is supported by the United States — that is a rigid theocratic dictatorship where women have less rights than in Russia, where there is no freedom of religion and which is fighting a war in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia is hardly mentioned in this book. I became irritated when the author mentioned on page that American soldiers were dying for a democratic Iraq. This is pure hyperbole!
They also went there for oil. Regardless, a lot of light is shed on petroleum states and the companies that invest in them. And these companies prefer to deal with dictatorships where there is one-stop shopping, much less regulation, and more secrecy.
They worry much less about the environment and pesky inquiries from members of the government. View all 11 comments. One million stars. I listened to the audible version and it was like Rachel telling me secrets.
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