January 10, 1901 -a momentous day in history. At 10:30 in the morning the first great American gusher "roared in like a shot from a heavy cannon and spouted oil a hundred feet over the top of the derrick out on the hummock that the world would soon know as Spindletop." Overnight the town of Beaumont, Texas became a bedlam. The population doubled and doubled again ... This is the true story of the oil discovery that changed the world -of the events leading up to it and the boom days that followed.

Well documented by public records, actual court reports, and newspaper accounts, this book is a true story of greed, ambition and murder in the first degree.

A history of the Spindletop oil discovery at Beaumont, Texas, in 1901.

The purpose of this book is to detect and explore discernible economic trends in the development of Texas during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and to determine the significance of these long-range indicators.

Recounts how Texas oil transformed wealth and power in America through the stories of the state's four most influential oil families, tracing how they rose from modest backgrounds, shaped the government, and bankrolled the rise of modern conservatism.

“Full of schadenfreude and speculation—and solid, timely history too.” —Kirkus Reviews “This is a portrait of capitalism as white-knuckle risk taking, yielding fruitful discoveries for the fathers, but only sterile speculation for the sons—a story that resonates with today's economic upheaval.” —Publishers Weekly “What's not to enjoy about a book full of monstrous egos, unimaginable sums of money, and the punishment of greed and shortsightedness?” —The Economist Phenomenal reviews and sales greeted the hardcover publication of The Big Rich, New York Times bestselling author Bryan Burrough's spellbinding chronicle of Texas oil. Weaving together the multigenerational sagas of the industry's four wealthiest families, Burrough brings to life the men known in their day as the Big Four: Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson, all swaggering Texas oil tycoons who owned sprawling ranches and mingled with presidents and Hollywood stars. Seamlessly charting their collective rise and fall, The Big Rich is a hugely entertaining account that only a writer with Burrough's abilities-and Texas upbringing-could have written.