Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth

Rachel Maddow

Oct 2019 · Sold by Crown

About this ebook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Big Oil and Gas Versus Democracy—Winner Take All

“A rollickingly well-written book, filled with fascinating, exciting, and alarming stories about the impact of the oil and gas industry on the world today.”—The New York Times Book Review

In 2010, the words “earthquake swarm” entered the lexicon in Oklahoma. That same year, a trove of Michael Jackson memorabilia—including his iconic crystal-encrusted white glove—was sold at auction for over $1 million to a guy who was, officially, just the lowly forestry minister of the tiny nation of Equatorial Guinea. And in 2014, revolutionaries in Ukraine raided the palace of their ousted president and found a zoo of peacocks, gilded toilets, and a floating restaurant modeled after a Spanish galleon. Unlikely as it might seem, there is a thread connecting these events, and Rachel Maddow follows it to its crooked source: the unimaginably lucrative and equally corrupting oil and gas industry.

With her trademark black humor, Maddow takes us on a switchback journey around the globe, revealing the greed and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas along the way, and drawing a surprising conclusion about why the Russian government hacked the 2016 U.S. election. She deftly shows how Russia’s rich reserves of crude have, paradoxically, stunted its growth, forcing Vladimir Putin to maintain his power by spreading Russia’s rot into its rivals, its neighbors, the West’s most important alliances, and the United States. Chevron, BP, and a host of other industry players get their star turn, most notably ExxonMobil and the deceptively well-behaved Rex Tillerson. The oil and gas industry has weakened democracies in developed and developing countries, fouled oceans and rivers, and propped up authoritarian thieves and killers. But being outraged at it is, according to Maddow, “like being indignant when a lion takes down and eats a gazelle. You can’t really blame the lion. It’s in her nature.”

Blowout is a call to contain the lion: to stop subsidizing the wealthiest businesses on earth, to fight for transparency, and to check the influence of the world’s most destructive industry and its enablers. The stakes have never been higher. As Maddow writes, “Democracy either wins this one or disappears.”

Ratings and reviews

I wonder... If these people hate oil and gas so much.. Why do they hate natural gas which stops putting the money in russia and middle east but into america? Why do they support chinese made solar panels and turbines when china is as bad as russia in terms of global conflict/dealings? Also if the 2016 election was hacked by russia how come trump enstregnethed our euroepean allies and america by cutting power dependency from russia by telling them to stop buying russian oil and buy american natural gas? Russia hacked an election to hurt themselves? Maybe our journalists should be asking more questions instead of writing fan fiction propaganda to make a couple bucks like the oil tycoons they claim to hate.

An eye opening look at greed fueled corruption on a global scale. Amazingly informed through meticulous research that brings clarity to many of the current problems plaguing our society today. If you want to understand the events that shaped the divisions fracturing our country's unity since the 2016 elections, read this book. Also if you support President Trump, read this book !

Rachel Maddow is an AMAZING writer... This book is a BEST SELLER ! I'm amazed by the parallels between BLOWOUT and World Events right now ; Especially in Washington DC, Kyev and Moscow.. This book is a MUST-READ ! I LOVED IT !

About the author

Rachel Maddow is host of the Emmy Award–winning Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, as well as the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power; Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth; and Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House. Maddow received a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University and earned her doctorate in political science at Oxford University. She lives in New York City and Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula.