Texas oil, American dreams

In this intricate narrative, Lawrence Goodwyn has undertaken to penetrate the legend of the wildcatter and bring into focus the people who endeavored to act out the American Dream in the remote corners of oil country. It is surprising to discover early on - even before the outlines of the wildcatter become clear - other vague but seemingly omnipotent actors occupying center stage: major oil companies. Independents and the majors are found to be abrasively yoked in awkward embrace: what immediately becomes clear for the first time in this intimate study is that the presence of one helps in central ways to define the other. Indeed, the whole relationship of individual enterprise to corporate enterprise becomes uniquely visible in the sources amassed over half a century by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association. Texas Oil, American Dreams has a compelling quality whose ultimate meaning extends far beyond the borders of Texas because the enterprise of oil-finding and the wildcatters who have lived it constitute one of the most intense expressions of individual American striving. Above all, they kept careful records of their own efforts - when they prevailed and why, and when they met defeat and why.