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Blowout

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

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 2021 GRAMMY® Winner for Best Spoken Word Album

#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, Ukrainian revolutionaries 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 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.” Corruption & Misconduct Politics & Government Russia Russian & Soviet United States World
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great book. factually exposes how big corporations are monsters with their own will to survive and do anything to grow. thanks for this Rachel

great

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This book explains why so many strange decisions are being made in this presidency.

So thats why

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Extremely well researched and written. Opened my eyes to corruption and wrong doing in Russia and the oil industry. It should and probably will make you mad but it joins dots that really need joining and now it's up to us to make sure politicians get control back and protect our democracy.

Brilliant and essential

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I absolutely loved this. Rachel Maddow exposes the history of misdeeds by the energy industry with an amazing mix of humour and scholarly precision. It does for oil and gas what The Bean Counters does for accountancy.

Maddow at her best

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Brilliantly written and narrated. If only everyone could listen to this and take note! Can't wait for whatever Rachel explores next.

Inciteful expose

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