Petrolia
Subtitle: The Landscape of America's First Oil Boom (Creating the North American Landscape)
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: May 17, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780801863172
Subjects: Economic history; Historical geography; Local history; Petroleum & oil industries; United States - State & Local - Middle Atlantic; Pennsylvania; Petroleum Industries (Economic Aspects); Business & Economics; History - U.S.; United States - 19th Century; Nature/Ecology; Petroleum; Architecture / Landscape; Industries - General; History; Oil Creek Valley (Crawford County and Venango County, Pa.); Petroleum industry and trade
First sentence: Little do I remember of...the increased comforts of life or moving into the new home on the hillside above the town by this time known as Rouseville.
Description: "In Petrolia Brian Black offers a geographical and social history of a region that was not only the site of America's first oil boom but was also the world's largest oil producer between 1859 and 1873. Against the background of changes in attitudes toward consumption and the growing demand for petroleum throughout and immediately following the Civil War, Black describes Oil Creek Valley's descent into environmental hell.

Known as "Petrolia," the region charged the popular imagination with its nearly overnight transition from agriculture to industry. But so unrestrained were these early efforts at oil drilling, Black writes, that "the landscape came to be viewed only as an instrument out of which one could extract crude." In a very short time, Petrolia was a ruined place - environmentally, economically, and to some extent even culturally.

Black gives historical detail and analysis to account for this transformation."--BOOK JACKET.