Oil in the Deep South: A History of the Oil Business in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, 1859-1945

Rating:
Summary: Well written history of oil in MI and AL to 1945, but not FL
Review: "Oil in the Deep South" begins with a well written, enlightening, and thorough review of the early history of the petroleum industry, which is very effective in providing a context for the main subject of the book. Similarly, throughout the book, events outside of Alabama and Mississippi are discussed in context with their effect on the Alabama/Mississippi oil industry. Many maps, diagrams, and tables are very effective in enhancing the presentation. Even so, the subject matter and the detail in which it is treated makes this admirable work primarily a reference for specialists, and not a light read for a general audience. A glossary could have helped make this work a more accessible to a slightly wider audience. The limitation of the scope to "up to 1945", greatly reduces the potential utility and interest in this work. It simply leaves readers hanging. Surely one or two chapters could have brought the book up to, say 1995. Even a short "summary to the Present" of 3 or 4 pages would have been appreciated. Apparently, even the author felt this has he provides summary sentences describing the ultimate number of wells and production of fields in Mississippi subsequent to 1945 and mentions post-1945 discoveries in passing. The book concentrates on Mississippi, but covers Alabama nearly as thoroughly. There are only two petroleum fields in Florida, so the challenge to cover Florida just as thoroughly is trivial, but this challenge is not met. This neglect is also evidenced by several trivial, but annoying errors, in the discussion about Florida. Only 2 or 3 pages based on 2 or 3 readily available (free) Florida Geological Survey publications, could have made the Florida coverage comparable to Alabama/Mississippi.