Oil pulses through our daily lives. It is the plastic we touch, the food we eat, and the way we move. In this in-depth primer to the world's wealthiest industry, Gavin Bridges and Philippe Le Billon take a fresh look at the contemporary geopolitics of oil.

"The oil industry was born very late in Brazil, even when compared to other Latin American countries. The emergence of this productive activity in the country occurs as a result of the persistence of national public and private actors, who bet on the country's geological potential. A singular trajectory also shows that the institutionalization of geosciences occurs in the wake of productive activity. from Petrobras, in 1953, that the lack of qualified...