This volume provides a theoretical framework for understanding both the development of the international oil industry and the role played by oil in the emergence and evolution of US postwar hegemony. While providing a narrative account of the oil industry from its origins in the 19th century through to the present, the main focus is an analytic treatment of the postwar period. Drawing widely on political economy, international relations and the recent literature on the state, the book offers a comprehensive study of the connections between US hegemony and the international oil industry.