The Intrepid Wanda Jablonski and the Power of Information
Anna Rubino
Beacon Press
Given the overwhelming evidence of global warming, and debates about the future of the energy industry, it’s helpful to put it all in context by looking back to the birth of the industry. We have come a long way from a time when an informal club of engineers, geologists and accountants managed the international oil world.
Into that club stepped Wanda Jablonski, a Slovakian-born American journalist, who wielded extraordinary influence over the 20th century’s wealthiest industry. Queen of the Oil Club introduces the woman whom Daniel Yergin has compared to muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell, calling her one of the two great women journalists of the 20th century who “had a far-reaching impact on the world oil industry.” Jablonski shed light on the deeply secret world of the international oil trade and her story and her incomparable access to the story behind the rise of OPEC lets us in on the real dynamics of oil politics at a time when that kind of understanding couldn’t be more important.