After devoting a good deal of space to explaining why he finds most theories of international relations inadequate to explain American hegemony, Bromley pulls together a large number of facts as he retells the story of oil as a strategic commodity in modern times. He mixes good analytical points with quite dubious ones and sometimes lapses into overcomplicated scholarly lingo. He draws freely on a collection of quasi-Marxist ideas (or is it only the vocabulary?). But the whole leads him to what seem like realistic conclusions concerning the alteration rather than the elimination of American power.
