Interesting points however it is highly possible that mentioned points are more likely to be just wild conspiracy theories than truth...

I follow Luke Gromen (Forest Through the Trees research firm) on twitter and on the MacroVoices podcast. I generally agree with him and highly regard his opinion, so when he strongly recommended this book, I thought I should check it out. Almost immediately, I could tell the book was a conspiracy theory type of thing. Ultimately, I think the book is mostly a pile of crap. It was definitely a different way to look at the history of the past 100 or so years.

I actually love history and have been reading a ton of books about this general time period from multiple authors with different perspectives. Engdahl just connects stuff tangentially that fits historical dates, but doesn't jive with anything else I have read from any source. For him to be correct, you have to believe that every politician was elected by a cabul of powerful oilmen and not because of any other event occurring in the US or England during the last 40 years. I thought his abiotic oil formation theory was interesting, but apparently, it isn't as clear cut as he suggests (I found websites on both sides of the issue: http://www.gasresources.net/energy_re..., https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/02/1...).

Ultimately, I think events of the past 150 years are too complex to boil down to a Anglo-American conspiracy for oil. Does he tie a lot of points together that are true? Yes. The US definitely agreed to defend Saudi Arabia in exchange for the petro dollar. Does that mean Kissinger was a pawn for oilmen? I tend to doubt it.

good

This is the book to read out of the ocean of books published on such subjects since 2001 (although it itself was written in the early 90's and updated for this more recent edition).

It focuses on all the right subjects: oil + economic policies, war + economic interests of the US/UK, First World petroleum transnationals + Third World misery/subjugation, Anglo-American intelligence + less-than-public national goals.

Engdahl, the author, places all these factors into perspective and gives you a clear and concise history. Use this book as a particularly lucid and trenchant precis to present global events.