Oil and Empire

Harvard FAS

What is the relationship between oil and empire? How has control over oil—the single most important commodity in the world—shaped the nature of power, politics, and environmental and social life in the twentieth century? How have different disciplines contributed to and at times undermined a critical understanding of oil politics? This interactive seminar will address these and other questions by examining the political, social, material, and cultural history of oil. Given the centrality of…