a pipeline runs through it, by keith fisher

Researcher Keith Fisher chronicles oil’s transformation from humble substance that seeped out of the ground, to killing machine for global war. 

​A Pipeline Runs Through It is a history of oil from ancient times to the start of the First World War. Oil has always been known about, and had various uses in antiquity, such as an adhesive or waterproofing agent. Oil seeps or springs gurgled the black stuff from the depths of the earth and it was collected for moderate use. 

It was in the mid-nineteenth century, when Americans discovered oil, and invented many more powerful applications for its use - lighting, heating, energy - that industrial extraction took hold. Due to its capital intensive nature, requiring enormous infrastructure for transportation, oil extraction as a capitalist project soon became monopolistic. The Standard Oil Company was the first big monopoly, and at one stage provided almost all American oil. 

The advantages of using oil was quickly taken up by developed economies. In the blink of an eye what had been a novelty, or luxury, turned into a necessity. The race for oil was on. Complicating factors even further was oil’s many benefits as a liquid fuel for military purposes. Once that was realised, then reluctantly digested by nations without access to oil themselves, the geopolitical carve up of the world became intense, almost desperate.

It took a mere decade for the British to go from using coal for their army and navy, in which they were self-sufficient, to oil, in which they were utterly dependent. This would ultimately lead the country to costly and risky  investment in the Middle East. Germany, a growing industrial power, now also needed to secure oil supplies. Suspicions grew between the two countries, especially the British, whose newspapers were flooded  with anti-German propaganda. 

Keith Fisher has written a superbly researched history, exhaustively documented with large quotes from contemporary sources. In a way, it provides a cautionary tale on how new technologies change power dynamics in big, often violent ways. (Many indigenous peoples were dispossessed to secure valuable oil wells).  It also shows how the past is prologue. Britain’s 1882 invasion of Egypt has many parallels to America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, both wars started on patently flimsy pretexts. 

A fascinating and indispensable study of a substance we all but take for granted.

A Pipeline Runs Through It: The Story of Oil from Ancient Times to the First World War, by Keith Fisher. Published by Penguin. $39.99

Review by Chris Saliba

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