As never before, today oil is dripping-dry. It is in shortage, and a late search for alternative energy sources in under way. Notwithstanding, oil comes with a century long history: during the first half of the Twentieth century it was widely known at an early stage as the most important cheap energy to fuel a mass consumption growth model., and later on - in the course of the 1970s- as the main cause for the worldwide economic downturn. Thereafter, throughout the last thirty years, both in the academia and in the broader public discourse it was at the center of a compelling debate on environmental problems. In this respect it was thought of as at variance with our earth environment. In the light of the ongoing world energy crisis and the on stream debate on ‘the end of oil’, this books offers a long term historical account on the role and relevance of oil in the history of the Twentieth century through a tidy investigation of the relationships among the oil producing economies and the oil consuming industrialized countries. Spanning from the Middle East to Western Africa, from the very periphery of the American continent to the Soviet Union, this work pinpoints the interplay between oil economics and the development of the international relations system throughout the century, its role in shaping the oil producing countries political and labour regimes, as well as its ratio to the ascendancy and failure of mass consumption models based on oil and hydrocarbon compounds.