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The book includes vivid accounts of the attempts by Standard oil to achieve a monopoly on American Oil production and distribution, of the key role played by oil in both the world wars, of the exploitation of oil-producing nations by the giant distributors, and of the ways in which the producing nations have lately turned the tables and begun to exploit the consuming nations. Underlying this dramatic history is a continuing theme of misuse, from …

…then it fell well below that for the next fifteen years, beginning to rise with the outbreak or World War I, until by 1919 it was $2.21 a barrel. Although the Appalachian fields by then produced only a small fraction of the nation's total, it commanded by far the highest price because it was of a superior quality for lubricants, getting $3.58 in 1919. Even today Pennsylvania grade commands a premium and is widely advertised as a superior lubricant.