Overview

Oil has played a major role in Venezuela’s economy since the first gusher was discovered along Lake Maracaibo in 1922. As Miguel Tinker Salas demonstrates, oil has also transformed the country’s social, cultural, and political landscapes. In The Enduring Legacy, Tinker Salas traces the history of the oil industry’s rise in Venezuela from the beginning of the twentieth century, paying particular attention to the experiences and perceptions of industry employees, both foreign and Venezuelan. He reveals how class ambitions and corporate interests combined to reshape many Venezuelans’ ideas of citizenship. Middle-class Venezuelans embraced the oil industry from the start, anticipating that it would transform the country by introducing modern technology, sparking economic development, and breaking the landed elites’ stranglehold. Eventually Venezuelan employees of the industry found that their benefits, including relatively high salaries, fueled loyalty to the oil companies. That loyalty sometimes trumped allegiance to the nation-state.North American and British petroleum companies, seeking to maintain their stakes in Venezuela, promoted the idea that their interests were synonymous with national development. They set up oil camps—residential communities to house their workers—that brought Venezuelan employees together with workers from the United States and Britain, and eventually with Chinese, West Indian, and Mexican migrants as well. Through the camps, the companies offered not just housing but also schooling, leisure activities, and acculturation into a structured, corporate way of life. Tinker Salas contends that these practices shaped the heart and soul of generations of Venezuelans whom the industry provided with access to a middle-class lifestyle. His interest in how oil suffused the consciousness of Venezuela is personal: Tinker Salas was born and raised in one of its oil camps.

Full Product Details

Author:   Miguel Tinker Salas
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.30cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.626kg
ISBN:  

9780822344001

ISBN 10:   0822344009
Pages:   344
Publication Date:   11 May 2009
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Preface vii Introduction: Oil, Culture, and Society 1 1. A Tropical Mediterranean: Lake Maracaibo at the Turn of the Century 15 2. The Search for Black Gold 39 3. La Ruta Petrolera: Learning to Live with Oil 73 4. Oil, Race, Labor, and Nationalism 107 5. Our Tropical Outpost: Gender and the Senior Staff Camps 143 6. The Oil Industry and Civil Society 171 7. Oil and Politics: An Enduring Relation 205 Conclusion: An Enduring Legacy 237 Notes 251 Bibliography 299 Index 317

Reviews

Miguel Tinker Salas leaves no leaf unturned in his examination of the Venezuelan oil industry and in the process demonstrates its all-encompassing influence on the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the nation throughout most of the twentieth century. One of his most important contributions is to show how the foreign-owned oil companies ingeniously modified policies in order to adapt to the requirements of different regimes, including dictatorships, transitional governments, and democratic ones. At the same time, however, he amply documents how the multinationals generated resentment and resistance as a result of their imposition on Venezuelans of attitudes and patterns from the metropolis and their spurning of local traditions. In short, The Enduring Legacy is a must read for anyone who wants to go beneath the surface to understand the Venezuelan experience in all its dimensions. --Steve Ellner, author of Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict, and the Chavez Phenomenon The Enduring Legacy illuminates a national landscape deeply shaped by the oil industry, yet often analyzed as if this industry were an economic enclave isolated from Venezuelan society. Miguel Tinker Salas convincingly argues that from the outset, this industry was a crucible of social transformations within and beyond itself. By examining the transmutation of this industry from a foreign enclave to a national industry, this valuable book offers a sweeping view of one hundred years of Venezuelan history. --Fernando Coronil, author of The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela

""Miguel Tinker Salas leaves no leaf unturned in his examination of the Venezuelan oil industry and in the process demonstrates its all-encompassing influence on the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the nation throughout most of the twentieth century. One of his most important contributions is to show how the foreign-owned oil companies ingeniously modified policies in order to adapt to the requirements of different regimes, including dictatorships, transitional governments, and democratic ones. At the same time, however, he amply documents how the multinationals generated resentment and resistance as a result of their imposition on Venezuelans of attitudes and patterns from the metropolis and their spurning of local traditions. In short, The Enduring Legacy is a must read for anyone who wants to go beneath the surface to understand the Venezuelan experience in all its dimensions.""--Steve Ellner, author of Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict, and the Chavez Phenomenon ""The Enduring Legacy illuminates a national landscape deeply shaped by the oil industry, yet often analyzed as if this industry were an economic enclave isolated from Venezuelan society. Miguel Tinker Salas convincingly argues that from the outset, this industry was a crucible of social transformations within and beyond itself. By examining the transmutation of this industry from a foreign enclave to a national industry, this valuable book offers a sweeping view of one hundred years of Venezuelan history.""--Fernando Coronil, author of The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela

"""Miguel Tinker Salas leaves no leaf unturned in his examination of the Venezuelan oil industry and in the process demonstrates its all-encompassing influence on the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the nation throughout most of the twentieth century. One of his most important contributions is to show how the foreign-owned oil companies ingeniously modified policies in order to adapt to the requirements of different regimes, including dictatorships, transitional governments, and democratic ones. At the same time, however, he amply documents how the multinationals generated resentment and resistance as a result of their imposition on Venezuelans of attitudes and patterns from the metropolis and their spurning of local traditions. In short, The Enduring Legacy is a must read for anyone who wants to go beneath the surface to understand the Venezuelan experience in all its dimensions.""--Steve Ellner, author of Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict, and the Chavez Phenomenon ""The Enduring Legacy illuminates a national landscape deeply shaped by the oil industry, yet often analyzed as if this industry were an economic enclave isolated from Venezuelan society. Miguel Tinker Salas convincingly argues that from the outset, this industry was a crucible of social transformations within and beyond itself. By examining the transmutation of this industry from a foreign enclave to a national industry, this valuable book offers a sweeping view of one hundred years of Venezuelan history.""--Fernando Coronil, author of The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela"

Author Information

Miguel Tinker Salas is Arango Professor in Latin American History and Professor of History and Chicano/a Studies at Pomona College. He is the author of In the Shadow of the Eagles: Sonora and the Transformation of the Border during the Porfiriato and co-editor of Venezuela: Hugo Chávez and the Decline of an “Exceptional Democracy.”

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