Imperial Standard: Imperial Oil, Exxon, and the Canadian Oil Industry from 1880. By Graham D. Taylor,. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2019. xii + 368 pp. Photographs, maps, figures, appendix, bibliography, notes, index. Paper, $39.99. ISBN: 978-1-77385-035-1

Tyler Priest

doi:10.1017/S0007680520000422

Back

Review

Imperial Standard: Imperial Oil, Exxon, and the Canadian Oil Industry from 1880. By Graham D. Taylor,. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2019. xii + 368 pp. Photographs, maps, figures, appendix, bibliography, notes, index. Paper, $39.99. ISBN: 978-1-77385-035-1

Tyler Priest

Business History Review, Vol.94(2), pp.470-472

07/01/2020

DOI: 10.1017/S0007680520000422

View Online

Abstract

[...]Canada emerged as a major oil and gas producer decades before the commercial development of the oil sands, and the origins of the Canadian oil industry even preceded the famous 1859 Drake well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Based on extensive research in Imperial's corporate records at the Glenbow Museum and Archives in Calgary, along with a range of other primary and secondary sources, Taylor provides valuable insight into Imperial's leading role in the evolution of oil not only as a major national industry but also as “an integral part of the system of continental and then global expansion and dominion that Exxon pursued from its emergence in 1880” (p. 3). The third addresses the environmental impacts and issues that attended Canadian oil development, largely from the Leduc discovery forward through the challenge of global climate change, which seriously threatens Imperial's commitment to oil sands development.

Photography

Climate Change

Petroleum

21st century

Oil reserves

Maps

Bibliographic literature

Discovery

Oil sands

Natural gas reserves

Petroleum industry

Details

Title: Subtitle: Imperial Standard: Imperial Oil, Exxon, and the Canadian Oil Industry from 1880. By Graham D. Taylor,. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2019. xii + 368 pp. Photographs, maps, figures, appendix, bibliography, notes, index. Paper, $39.99. ISBN: 978-1-77385-035-1
Creators: Tyler Priest
Resource Type: Review
Publication Details: Business History Review, Vol.94(2), pp.470-472
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Boston
DOI: 10.1017/S0007680520000422
ISSN: 0007-6805
eISSN: 2044-768X
Language: English
Date published: 07/01/2020
Academic Unit: Geographical and Sustainability Sciences; History; Public Policy Center (Archive)
Record Identifier: 9984025526302771

Metrics

16 Record Views