PRAISE
“A fascinating story that will reshape your sense of what binds the world together.”
Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
“Asphalt is the most useful substance . . . Oozing ease and profit,/ And leaving us for dead.”
Graeme Wynn, past president of the American Society for Environmental History
“Full of forceful characters from Nebuchadnezzar to the Koch brothers, and ranging from the Dead Sea’s asphalt seeps to Alberta’s oil sands.”
J. R. McNeill, past president of the American Historical Association
“A highly original and engaging book . . . on the profound impact that a mundane matter—asphalt—has had on virtually every aspect of life in America.”
Darren Dochuk, author of Anointed With Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America
“Read this book, step outside, and see our world anew.”
Paul Bogard, author of The Ground Beneath Us
“A fresh perspective on some of the central themes of modern global history.”
Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton: A Global History
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kenneth O'Reilly was born in New York City. After studying American history he received a Ph.D. from Marquette University. He is the author of several books, including Nixon’s Piano: Presidents and Racial Politics from Washington to Clinton, Racial Matters: The FBI’s Secret File on Black America, Black Americans: The FBI File, and Hoover and the Un-Americans: The FBI, HUAC, and the Red Menace. Racial Matters was a New York Times notable book of the year.
He is emeritus professor of history at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and now teaches at Milwaukee Area Technical College. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has received Chancellor's Awards for Excellence in Research and Teaching, plus grants and fellowships from numerous institutes and foundations, including:
Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights
Fund for Investigative Journalism
John F. Kennedy Library Foundation
National Endowment for the Humanities
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation
American Philosophical Society
