Blowout : corrupted democracy, rogue state Russia, and the richest, most destructive industry on Earth / Rachel Maddow.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 371-390) and index.

Introduction: In a surrealist landscape -- Splendor and fragrance -- The genie -- Stolen goods -- Charlie Hustle -- Thunder up! -- Rex shrugged -- A risk management problem -- Poster boy -- Practical realities -- Who does that? -- The other 1 percent -- Ultrahazardous activity -- A significant strategic step -- Trust -- The handsome hero -- This ain't no disco -- Such a man is born once every few decades -- Putin zassal -- All hail the mercenaries -- His idea of America -- Because they could -- "We greatly value our relationship" -- Pobeda! -- "Yeah that was crazy" -- Active appreciation -- It all ties back -- "All they have is this" -- "Constituency trumps everything" -- Containment.

"Rachel Maddow's Blowout offers a dark, serpentine, riveting tour of the unimaginably lucrative and corrupt oil-and-gas industry. With her trademark black humor, Maddow takes us on a switchback journey around the globe-from Oklahoma City to Siberia to Equatorial Guinea-exposing the greed and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas. She shows how Russia's rich reserves of crude have, paradoxically, stunted its growth, forcing Putin to maintain his power by spreading Russia's rot into its rivals, its neighbors, the United States, and the West's most important alliances. Chevron, BP, and a host of other industry players get their star turn, but ExxonMobil and the deceptively well-behaved Rex Tillerson emerge as two of the past century's most consequential corporate villains. The oil-and-gas industry has weakened democracies in developed and developing countries, fouled oceans and rivers, and propped up authoritarian thieves and killers. But being outraged at it is, according to Maddow, "like being indignant when a lion takes down and eats a gazelle. You can't really blame the lion. It's in her nature.""-- Provided by publisher.