Review of Blowout

Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth

I have a riddle for you. What do Michael Jackson memorabilia, Marmite, expensive paper towels, a nuclear bomb, and Prague (the one in Oklahoma!) have in common? If you don’t know but would like to, then keep on reading.

Most of us have a favorite author. The one who makes you (very conveniently, I might add) forget your massive TBR pile and run into the nearest bookstore to get their new book, fresh off the press. For some it might be Stephen King’s annual release, for others it’s another installment of their favorite saga by Sarah J. Mass. For me, it’s anything and everything written by Rachel Maddow. And so it happened that I had my nose stuck in a book about the oil industry, oblivious to the scolding gaze of all the other books I already had at home. And I was smitten.

Believe it or not, the answer to the introductory riddle is the oil industry. Ta-da. I know what you’re probably thinking: A book about the oil industry? Seriously? What a bore. And there was a time I would agree with you. But that’s exactly when the magic of Rachel Maddow comes in. And if you never heard of her, here’s a little introduction:

Rachel Maddow is one of the biggest names in the world of US political commentary. She’s also the heart and soul of the most successful award-winning show on MSNBC: The Rachel Maddow Show. For her audience, Maddow is someone I call “the Explainer-in-Chief.” She has the unique talent to take the incredibly confusing knot of American and foreign politics and transform it into a digestible form for the rest of us, who, unlike her, aren’t exactly Rhodes scholars. Add a great sense of humor, incredible dedication, and a work ethic bordering on obsessiveness, and boom! An extremely addictive combination.

In 2019 when the book was released, I was mainly interested in the main research question of this book: Why was Russia willing to undergo all the risk connected with their efforts to influence the US presidential election in 2016? After all, until the very day of the election, the odds were overwhelmingly in Hillary Clinton’s favor. And Clinton, a former first lady and secretary of state, was already known to be a Russia hawk. And Russia meddling in the US election would most certainly not improve its situation if she was elected to the White House. What might have seemed like foolishness on the part of Russia, starts to make sense once we focus on oil, which is the sole thing Russia’s economy (which is smaller than Italy’s, I might add) is based upon.

Blowout

Maddow Rachel

EnglishPaperback / softback

Vintage Publishing

ISBN: 9781529113204

On order

Delivery on Monday, 5. of May 2025

On order

Delivery on Monday, 5. of May 2025

€13.17 -10%

Maddow argues that the Russian economy is in such a bad state, that it doesn’t even have the technology to extract the oil from the ground. For this, they need the know-how and technology of foreign oil companies, most notably US Exxon Mobile. And here we hit the nail on the head. After Russia annexed Crimea, the USA imposed sanctions which also applied to the activities of US oil companies. And these sanctions hit Putin where it hurts him the most. It’s no wonder then that the risk Russia undertook seemed like a fair price for what they managed to accomplish in the end – help elect a pro-Russian president into the White House, whose first steps in the office included naming Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson to the post of secretary of state.

Even though the US has gone through two more election cycles since the book was published and thus might seem a bit “outdated,” the opposite is true. Not only does it remind us of the series of unfortunate events that was Trump’s first term, but it also provides an important piece of a puzzle that helps us understand the situation in Ukraine, the logic of imposing sanctions and the US-Russian relationship generally. But there are more reasons to dig in.

Firstly, it presents us with a clear picture of just how massive the oil industry is. How it influences the everyday life of us all, regardless of whether we enjoy the comfort of our pickup truck or we, perhaps a bit more responsibly, use the advantages of public transport. As Maddow shows, our personal preferences are truly just drops in a wide ocean of oil. It is distressing to realize how easily the oil industry has created its own political climate, which enables it to remain as unregulated as it is. How many times have we witnessed how completely unprepared this industry is for the ecological catastrophes it causes? Here I would refer you back to the mention of expensive paper towels in the introductory riddle. That’s exactly how Exxon Mobile tried to deal with oil spillage in Mayflower, Arkansas in 2013. Paper towels. Not enough to clean up my spilled tea, but sure let’s use it to mop up 300,000 gallons of oil. Off of ducks. And Mayflower residents.

In a more general way, we also get a little introductory lecture on the resource curse theory, which explains how it’s possible that countries sitting on oil usually have some of the most despotic and corrupted governments in the world. How is it possible that the richer the country is in mineral resources, the poorer the nation is. Why, after the discovery of oil, factors such as poverty or infant mortality increase rather than decrease. Juan Pablo Pérez, an OPEC founding member, said about the oil industry: “ten years from now, twenty years from now, you will see; oil will bring us ruin. Oil is the Devil's excrement.” So there you have it: devil’s poop. I believe that makes the point about the rottenness of the business rather eloquently.

If you somehow missed the previous 7 paragraphs, Blowout isn’t happy reading. Maybe as a result of reading it, you’ll have some sleepless nights, you will lose some of your ideals, and maybe you won’t be able to look at the world the same way. Good. That’s half the point. Nevertheless, I can promise you'll walk away much smarter, more cautious, and with a more complex view of everything around us. And maybe even with a little hope. Among the helplessness and ruin, Maddow also shares a kind of David and Goliath-like story . Or in our case Prague (Oklahoma) and a certain oil company. Though I must admit, this hope does fade in comparison to the disastrous worldwide impact of the oil industry. In the end, there is nothing more left than to agree with the sentiments of a former Saudi Arabia Secretary for Oil industry Sheikh Ahmed Yamani:

“All in all, I wish we had discovered water instead.”

Even though the book is way more readable than it might seem at first glance, it includes a lot of technical and political terms, so I would definitely recommend it to readers whose level of English reaches the C1 level and above. Also, if this review got you interested in the book, but you don’t feel like reading 400 pages about oil, I can highly recommend the audiobook (which you can also find in our catalog). The book is read by the author and if I didn’t convince you maybe the Grammy award for the best spoken album from 2020 will.