Steve Levine has written an excellent book about the race to exploit the Caspian’s energy IF THE history of the oil industry’s role as a force for democracy and civilisation around the world is your thing, don’t read this book.* There is lots of oil and much pursuit of empire in Steve Levine’s account of the rush to exploit the hydrocarbons of the countries bordering the Caspian Sea during the 1990s. There is also much greed and corruption. Despite the book’s title, though, no one is covered in much glory. Levine was a foreign correspondent based in the region during the 1990s and watched as the fall of the Soviet Union triggered a scramble among Western companies to win contracts to produce and export the subsoil wealth that was suddenly freed from Moscow’s control.