Headlines cheered recently as the United States surpassed Russia as the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. It was like the leader board of the 1976 Olympics—and strange. After all, the direction and fate of American oil and gas production had been clear for 23 years: straight decline, with an ever tightening noose around our neck. Most know of the sharp reversal of that decline; less know how it happened. Who did it? The oil and gas didn’t leap from the ground on its own in patriotic enthusiasm. Wall Street Journal reporter Gregory Zuckerman’s fast-paced, densely interesting The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters is the first book to tell the stories of the obstinate, ravenous, methodical, sometimes rascally oil executives of the recent boom. By focusing on people instead of trends, it gets to the heart of why the United States is once again the largest supplier of oil and gas in the world.
