Lucrarea reprezintă o sinteză apărută şi tipărită în două volume (vol. I – 2002 şi vol. II – 2004 şi) sub egida Editurii “Mica Valahie” din Bucureşti. Volumele, elaborate în temeiul unor documente descoperite în arhivele române şi străine, acoperă perioada de până la 1929 în primul volum şi perioada 1929-2005 în cel de-al doilea volum. În lucrare se relevă rolul şi locul petrolului românesc în derularea istoriei naţionale şi universale, mai ales pe parcursul conflagraţiei mondiale din 1939-1945 şi în desfăşurarea “războiului rece”. Volumul stăruie asupra perspectivelor evoluţiei problemei “aurului negru”. În anexe, se publică documente şi bibliografia completă a petrolului.

Lucrarea reprezintă o sintază apărută şi tipărită în două volume (vol. I – 2002 şi vol. II – 2004 şi) sub egida Editurii “Mica Valahie” din Bucureşti. Volumele, elaborate în temeiul unor documente descoperite în arhivele române şi străine, acoperă perioada de până la 1929 în primul volum şi perioada 1929-2005 în cel de-al doilea volum. În lucrare se relevă rolul şi locul petrolului românesc în derularea istoriei naţionale şi universale, mai ales pe parcursul conflagraţiei mondiale din 1939-1945 şi în desfăşurarea “războiului rece”. Volumul stăruie asupra perspectivelor evoluţiei problemei “aurului negru”. În anexe, se publică documente şi bibliografia completă a petrolului.

The history of the European oil and gas industry reflects local as well as global political events, economic constraints and the personal endeavours of individual petroleum geoscientists as much as it does the development of technologies and the underlying geology of the region. The first commercial oil wells in Europe were drilled in Poland in 1853, Romania in 1857, Germany in 1859 and Italy in 1860. The 23 papers in this volume focus on the history and heritage of the oil and gas industry in the key European oil-producing countries from the earliest onshore drilling to its development into the modern industry that we know today. The contributors chronicle the main events and some of the major players that shaped the industry in Europe. The volume also marks several important anniversaries, including 150 years of oil exploration in Poland and Romania, the centenary of the drilling of the first oil well in the UK and 50 years of oil production from onshore Spain.

It seemed that whenever Mussolini acted on his own, it was bad news for Hitler. Indeed, the Fuhrer's relations with his Axis partners were fraught with an almost total lack of coordination. Compared to the Allies, the coalition was hardly an alliance at all. Focusing on Germany's military relations with Italy, Romania, Hungary, and Finland, Richard DiNardo unearths a wealth of information that reveals how the Axis coalition largely undermined Hitler's objectives from the Eastern Front to the Balkans, Mediterranean, and North Africa. DiNardo argues that the Axis military alliance was doomed from the beginning by a lack of common war aims, the absence of a unified command structure, and each nation's fundamental mistrust of the others. Germany was disinclined to make the kinds of compromises that successful wartime partnerships demanded and, because Hitler insisted on separate pacts with each nation, Italy and Finland often found themselves conducting counterproductive parallel wars on their own. DiNardo's detailed assessments of ground, naval, and air operations reveal precisely why the Axis allies were so dysfunctional as a collective force, sometimes for seemingly mundane but vital reasons-a shortage of interpreters, for example. His analysis covers coalition warfare at every level, demonstrating that some military services were better at working with their allies than others, while also pointing to rare successes, such as Rommel's effective coordination with Italian forces in North Africa. In the end, while some individual Axis units fought with distinction—if not on a par with the vaunted Wehrmacht—and helped Germany achieve some of its military aims, the coalition's overall military performance was riddled with disappointments. Breaking new ground, DiNardo's work enlarges our understanding of Germany's defeat while at the same time offering a timely reminder of the challenges presented by coalition warfare.

This volume comprises a series of studies on Romanian history by Romanian and foreign historians of Romania dedicated to the memory of the distinguished Romanian historian Constantin C. Giurescu.

As OPEC has loosened its grip over the past ten years, the oil market has been rocked by wild price swings, the likes of which haven't been seen for eight decades. Crafting an engrossing journey from the gushing Pennsylvania oil fields of the 1860s to today's fraught and fractious Middle East, Crude Volatility explains how past periods of stability and volatility in oil prices help us understand the new boom-bust era. Oil's notorious volatility has always been considered a scourge afflicting not only the oil industry but also the broader economy and geopolitical landscape; Robert McNally makes sense of how oil became so central to our world and why it is subject to such extreme price fluctuations. Tracing a history marked by conflict, intrigue, and extreme uncertainty, McNally shows how—even from the oil industry's first years—wild and harmful price volatility prompted industry leaders and officials to undertake extraordinary efforts to stabilize oil prices by controlling production. Herculean market interventions—first, by Rockefeller's Standard Oil, then, by U.S. state regulators in partnership with major international oil companies, and, finally, by OPEC—succeeded to varying degrees in taming the beast. McNally, a veteran oil market and policy expert, explains the consequences of the ebbing of OPEC's power, debunking myths and offering recommendations—including mistakes to avoid—as we confront the unwelcome return of boom and bust oil prices.