Oil

More than any other substance, oil built the modern world; and more than any other substance it’s now destroying that world. It’s hard to imagine a more important subject, and this slim volume offers an introduction to the physics, politics, economics, and even the aesthetics of petroleum. * Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature (1989) *Written with sharpness and acuity, Michael Tondre’s Oil offers the single best introduction to the miracle substance to which we have unknowingly devoted our lives. Anyone reading this book will never again think about contemporary art, literature, and culture without also thinking about the resources they might offer us for imagining a post-petroleum world. * Imre Szeman, Director of the Institute for Environment, Conservation and Sustainability, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada, and Co-founder, Petrocultures Research Group *

Michael Tondre is Associate Professor of English at Stony Brook University, SUNY, USA. He is the author of The Physics of Possibility: Victorian Fiction, Science, and Gender (2018).