Contents -- Foreword -- Cast of characters -- Captive narratives: a brief and unexceptional introduction to the history of firms and states -- Part 1. The nearest faraway place -- Arabian frontiers -- American camp -- The wizards of Dhahran -- Part 2. Desire's empty quarter -- Ayyam al-Kadalak...

"Explores why America's energy crises of the 1970s occurred, how different choices might have prevented or ameliorated them, and what they have meant for the half-century since-and likely the half-century ahead."