The draft cover has arrived for Platform’s new book “The Oil Road”, due out with Verso in September.
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ًWhat is The Oil Road about?
A journey through space and time, from the deep waters of the Caspian along BP’s Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline towards the refineries of Bavaria and offices of London.
This travelogue tracks the flow of crude as it is sucked from Azeri geology, then pumped and shipped across the Caucasus mountains, Anatolia, the Mediterranean Sea and the Alps. James Marriott and Mika Minio-Paluello have written both a narrative of journeys along two pipelines and a passage through the history and culture, empires and resistance of these regions. Through their exploration we meet Turkish fisherfolk, British bankers, Georgian villagers, Azeri secret police, Stalin, the Rothschilds and Marinetti.
The Oil Road takes us on a journey through the city streets of London and Baku, Trieste and Tbilisi, to investigate how oil has shaped war and politics, landscapes and borders across Europe for the past 140 years. It explores how this substance has underlain the social visions of Modernity, from Bolshevism to Fascism, Neoliberal economics to Social Democracy. This book unpicks how the financial, military & political power centred in London, Brussels and Washington ensures that the movement of oil & gas in the energy corridors is not disrupted. The Oil Road develops a critique of the oil economy while highlighting hidden struggles and social movements fighting for survival, democracy and ecological sustainability.
Developed through 12 years of close study and numerous journeys along the pipelines, the book shows the reader the often hidden violence of our energy past and present, whilst exploring the future possibilities of moving beyond the Oil Road.