Embargo: The 1973 Oil Crisis That Changed the World (And What We Can Learn from It Now)

The definitive account of how the 1973–1974 oil embargo rewired the world forever—and the lessons to be learned today.

The king of Saudi Arabia had warned the Americans repeatedly: if you do not treat us with respect, we will cut off your oil. For years, nobody believed him. In October 1973, he made good on his threat.

The consequences were immediate. In America, fuel rationing and a 55 MPH emergency speed limit couldn’t stop the lights of Times Square flickering out by Christmas. With the Watergate scandal closing in, President Richard Nixon, and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, scrambled to secure peace in the Middle East and restart the flow of oil. Senior ministers from around the world flew to St Moritz to interrupt the Shah of Iran’s skiing holiday and beg for oil to keep their countries running.

Embargo is the gripping inside story of the 1973–1974 oil crisis and the small group of leaders who strode into chaos to build a new, imperfect order. It is the story of Faisal, the Saudi king, born to the desert chieftain who created modern Saudi Arabia, who became the richest man in the world; of Ahmed Zaki Yamani, his unflappable Harvard-educated oil minister who drove American oil executives to tears with his steely calm; of Henry Kissinger, who underestimated the Arabs’ resolve; and of William Simon, the Wall Street bond trader drafted by Nixon as his energy czar.

Filled with frantic diplomacy and secret negotiations, war, murder and kidnapping, Embargo follows the race to avert economic catastrophe and restore the flow of oil. In the process, it uncovers a turning point in modern history: the moment the world discovered how vulnerable its prosperity was to turmoil in the Middle East. More than fifty years later, we are still grappling with the consequences.