White Monkey – A Journey Upstream

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Title: White Monkey - A Journey Upstream

Author: R. Thomas Collins

ISBN: 1928928072

Description:

This ambitious series of essays follows an oilman as he travels upstream to his ancestral headwaters in Ireland and Britain to investigate the origins of his own beginnings and later to his wife’s home in Korea. The writer describes his work in the upstream of the oil industry, which enabled him to follow leads across continents and eras and discover the – sometimes brutal – conflicts among ethnic traditions that shaped his legacy. The result is a travelogue and memoir  that traces these two story lines across continents and over several centuries. On one level, White Monkey is a quest by the writer to come to terms with the ancient conflicts that overshadowed the lives of his parents and would influence the lives of his children. On another level, this is a behind-the-scenes look at Mobil’s struggle to continue its independence – a failed effort that ended with Mobil’s purchase by its old Standard Oil rival, Exxon – and a telling profile of today’s global oil industry and its complex interconnection with nations and trade.