Embargo

Jaw-dropping, deftly erudite, witty, shocking, outrageous. An extraordinary retelling of how energy changed – and continues to change – the deepest structures of world, war and nations. * RORY STEWART, author of Politics on the Edge *
A masterpiece: Delves Broughton is the most evocative non-fiction writer of our time. Here is the hawk-eyed King Faisal, seated at dinner with a hooded falcon, mimicking the bird’s piercing screech as he throws it meat from his table. There is Ibn Saud, crossing the Great Bitter Lake in a tent pitched on the deck of an American destroyer, sheep penned at the stern. And in Washington, Henry Kissinger, soothing and schmoozing Liza Minnelli an hour before Faisal turns off the oil. Sand, gold and treachery — this book made me feel a century turn. * SEBASTIAN MALLABY, author of The Man Who Knew *
The 1973 Arab oil embargo was a profound turning point in the modern age – the beginning of a wholesale reordering of the world’s geopolitical chessboard – and it has at last found its worthy chronicler. Through prodigious research and a novelist’s eye for the intriguing detail, Broughton takes his reader into the conference rooms and desert tents where strategies were devised and deals cut to produce the greatest transfer of wealth in human history. Readers will gain a fascinating education into how the global oil industry really works - and have a rollicking good time in the process. * SCOTT ANDERSON, author of King of Kings *
Gripping and insightful, Embargo is a must-read to understand not just the 1973 oil crisis, but every energy shock that has followed since – including the 2026 US-Iran war for the control of the Strait of Hormuz. * JAVIER BLAS, co-author of The World for Sale *
Embargo is the best book on oil politics I’ve read. It’s totally absorbing. * JAMES BARR, author of A Line in the Sane *
Philip Delves Broughton has turned the birth of the modern petro-state into a thriller - specific, cinematic, and completely impossible to put down. Embargo is the book that explains how the world we live in was actually made. * BRADLEY STONE, co-author of Billion Dollar Whale and Blood & Oil *

Philip Delves Broughton is the author of the international bestseller What They Teach You at Harvard Business School. He was born in Bangladesh and grew up in England. He served as the New York and Paris bureau chief for the Daily Telegraph, and he now writes for publications including the Financial Times, the Evening Standard, and the Wall Street Journal. In 2006 he received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two sons.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.