Oil, US empire, and the Middle East -- The road to the oil shock -- Pursuing petrodollar interdependence -- The triangle to the Nile -- The petrodollar economy -- Visions of petrodollar promise and peril -- Reform and revolt -- Revolution and invasions -- Recoveries and crises -- End of an era.

The global history of oil politics, from World War I to the present, can teach us much about world politics, climate change, and international order in the twenty-first century. When and why does international order change? The largest peaceful transfer of wealth across borders in all of human...