Sampson, Anthony. The Seven Sisters. New York: Bantam Books, 1976. 395 pages.

"The Seven Sisters" sorts out the tangled histories of the seven mega-corporations that dominate international oil: Exxon, Gulf, Texaco, Mobil, Socal, BP and Shell. Their shifting allegiances, Sampson argues, are best understood by remembering that the "sisters" are "basically committees of engineers and accountants preoccupied ... with profit margins, safeguarding investments, and avoiding taxation." The interests of the sheikhs of OPEC, media villains at the time Sampson was writing, clearly lie in defending the world the "sisters" have created. Sampson's analysis stands up well to subsequent events.

The son of a research scientist, Oxford-educated journalist Anthony Sampson writes elegant and exhaustively-researched books about powerful and often secretive elite groups: South Africa's white leadership, Britain's ossified elites, a multinational pirate corporation, the world oil industry, the international arms trade, international bankers. Without truckling, Sampson is able to get far enough inside such circles to show us how the world looks through their eyes -- while also providing a wealth of information that makes independent judgment possible.

-- Steve Badrich
ISBN 0-553-02887-1

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