I should say that this answers an ageold question for me. If there is anything that can depress the turnout, i think we have the answer. It was raining cats and dogs a few minutes ago. I wondered if there would be people there and i tip my cap to all of you this evening. And the director of the clement center. The manyike to thank people who helped make this evening possible. Rhonda whoeff and have coordinated all of the logistics. During my first semester, we received an anonymous 500,000 gift in honor of governor bill clemens who died earlier that year. The donor wanted to hear our ideas about how we put those funds to use before they were transmitted. Naturally, i proposed this money be applied to my mortgage. He passed. They liked much more the idea that they use the money to convert one of the junior postdoctoral fellowship lines to one that would support a senior scholar. They cost more and they pry away from institutions. Toh that settled, i turned my associate director for suggestions about who we might target as the inaugural recipient of this fellowship. They were hard at work with what sounds like a fascinating book about oil, religion, and politics. Because of other commitments, they could only join us for the spring 2013 semester. We loved having him with us because of his winning personality. We could layy so some claim to the book that resulted in the time that he spent here. It is a true pleasure to welcome him back this evening having come full circle. In alberta. It listen for the vowels. You will know what i mean. He will probably murder me for saying this, but he started his College Career as a scholarship volleyball player at George Mason University in fairfax, virginia. The d. C. Area was too much for him, but he returned home to his native canada. Vancouver with the university of notre dame. He started his teaching career in the midwest at purdue before a brief stent has associate professor in humanities. Proving that you can go home again five years ago, he is an associate professor of history. Published in 2011 and won several major awards from the organization of american historians. A truly wonderful book. Copies. Ree he has coedited a volume that emerged at a symposium called sunbelt rising. , publisheds of space in 2011. His research has been supported by the American Council society, the american philosophical society, and the rockefeller foundation. He is here tonight to discuss his latest book, anointed with oil. Year by basic books. Following his lecture, he will be happy to take your questions books available for purchase. Off to the left is a place where darren can sign them for you. Please join me in welcoming darren. Thank you. For southwest studies as well as the center for president ial history. As you heard, the support has been tremendous and it it is nice to be back on campus in dallas even with this unusual weather. Something i am used to having spent a good part of my life in vancouver and british columbia. It is a privilege to be with you today. I have spent a good amount of my time over the last few months talking to audiences on the oil patch whether it is down in the southwest or in alberta, canada. It turns out it was just a bit of oil and just a bit of religion. It tends to be a good conversation. It is also really special to be here because i spent so much fellow doing the first wave of research for this project. Productive four or five months here, i was able to pour through the papers at smu. And also do some quick trips to other archives around the state. Texas no surprise that looms so large in my story. But to be introduced along the way to so many colorful characters. In the top left from southeast someone from Daniel Plainview to there will be blood. Someone who is absolutely convinced that he could prophesy where oil existed and despite the efforts of geologist to thwart his advance, sure enough, 1901,hrough in january putting texas on the map. Someone who saw himself as working with the favor and in favor of the divine. This is a geologist with a slightly different generation. During his travels on horseback in the southeast portion of the state during the 1880s and 90s, they would look for oil. And sure enough, predict where it was going to be. And it would move into mexico to serve as a geologist. Or jake simmons, a very compelling figure, the most prominent africanamerican who got rich in east texas in the 1930s and use his wealth to build an empire. One that was also philanthropic using his money to support civil rights. He is also partially responsible for opening nigeria and ghana to Oil Exploration in the 50s and 60s. Very compelling figure, someone who wore her face on her sleeve as well. Is committed. Responsiblee forcing the government to take apart the standard monopoly. These are the characters that i got to know better at smu. Than a material resource or commodity. Transcending the base workings of business. Petroleum was their anointing by god and their call to uplift humanity. Michael writing the book was to explore how it is. It has imprinted itself on the american soul with real lasting social and political consequences. For people certainly in the pulpits and the pews, and also those beyond. For someone who recognized that oil was existential, it was theological. President jimmy carter, his words were appropriate for opening this talk. The speech. Ered there was a resulting Second Energy crisis. He pleaded for people to support Energy Conversation and asked for more. Myself the same question that i now know has been troubling many of you. Why have we been unable to get together to resolve our Serious Energy problem. Slamming,e him gently, his fist on the desk. It is clear the true problems of our nation are deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages. Deeper even than inflation or recession. It is a crisis of confidence. Strikes at the spirit of our national will. Ourselves to a rebirth. Those of you who are aware of carters career know that he spoke often on energy. He opened up his presidency in spring of 1977 with an Energy Program where, at which time, the fight for Renewable Energy supplies and alternative sources amounted to the moral equivalent of war. The 1979 crisis speech. Many of his advisers advised him against preaching and sermonizing to the people. They wanted him to Show Confidence and that he had answers, not to draw them into moral or lackhe of moral fortitude. Carter did not budge and went ahead anyway. Speechn takeaways of the were his to make alone. Itselfst confidence in and global standing. In the crisis was not just energyrelated. Similar. On tod oil get grafted america and serve as a catalyst wayambitions, paving the for what would be known as the American Century. What happened and what did it mean . Fueled by big religion and big oil crumbled during the carter era. I want to just offer a sample glimpse of a couple of facets. People in the Petroleum Industry and the rise of american political exceptionalism, they cut to the local level. And we try to move beyond altitude and focus on what might be familiar to you. Talk about modern american. It is an authority in the hydrocarbon age. It first captured americas heart as fuel in lubricant that would light cities and degrees modern machinery. Democratic in the privileging of individual free labor. Oil registered as modern americas lifeblood. Its discovery during the civil war and the role in setting the nations new economic course has perceived Regenerative Properties for those on the civil war better field battlefield. Underscores the oils nature for a society on the rise. This is abundantly clear and popular literature at the time. It is boilerplate for the american Petroleum Industry and also something that connected the property of oil and the ity of it. And destiny on an international stage. It lights the temples and mosques amid the ruins of babylon. It is the light of abrahams birthplace in damascus and burns in the grottoes in bethlehem. Cottage in the euphrates and the golden horn, it penetrated china and japan. Shed radiance over dark african waste. It is omnipresent and omnipotent. It lit the whole universe. Nothing cautious about that. As oil was mythologized and used as boilerplate, it also infused godfearing individuals with real clout that translated crude in christianity shared vision of the future to real corporate structures and outcomes. Their efforts were early generations in the oil industry but they carried special weight as they spread globally in the 20th century. They serve as illustration here. Consider the first picture above. This is the famous publisher whose parents were missionaries from china, funded by the rockefellers. 1941, they owned to beseech americans as protector of the free world and create the First American century. They had tested this a month earlier. Praisedised oilman for being the vanguards of americas role. Having the dynamic spirit of freedom and enterprise with a genius for cooperation and organization. Stop. O not for the roundness of the world, i salute you. Especially enamored by Large Oil Corporations that were exploring for oil across the globe and in the process, spreading modern technologies and knowhow. That theyhis time included five u. S. Oil companies. Standard newaco, york mobile. This is the moment in which these companies are turning towards south america and the arabian peninsula. This is before domestic reserves ran out. It is coming in the wake of fears of peak oil in the interwar time, anticipating what would come next. The corporate labors conjured a sense of limitless power. Which, when harnessed by godfearing patriots, had the capacity to transform the world. He drew on metaphor to encourage compatriots to use oil to fuel International Investment advancement. Session of petroleum served as the pillar of the American Century. But the very architect of the term suggested a religion of acumen a clout reach and Global Development be included. A second individual does as well. Was the son of presbyterian missionaries in the middle east. Amongrents were generation of missionaries that moved to beirut. Hospitals. Eveloped at princeton, he went on to train before accepting the presidency of the college in 1946. Eddie was a man of protestant conference that envisioned a new world order constructed out of enchanted crude. And940, while traveling recruiting for Financial Support for the school, he lectured on the power of god in the secular laypeoplech implored to be shocked into the church. You and i, he declared, who believe in christendom are not doomed to weakness. We need to cover ourselves with tolerance, reverence, and charity. We shall find ourselves standing on holy ground. Within months, eddie was acting on this imperative. A serving as the officer for the office of strategic services. The cia gained knowledge of its people and their faith, bringing the u. S. To union with this rising kingdom. Five years after claiming allegiance to a totalitarian and tolerant christianity, he oversaw historic yield. Pictures are before you for good. Truly committed as a moral alliance between people that shared faith and monotheism. He promoted peace between western and saudi interests by wave of mutual ambition and shared respect for the divine. Through aggressive proliferation of corporate promotion as well as practical instruction on how to live and labor in alanna saturated, he not only wrapped around in capitalism and corporate benevolence, he also animated groundlevel operations on the drill site and in the oil camps with the tenor of intercultural and ecumenical exchange. Of the more, i think, fascinating lines of work that the research took me to was looking at the interior lives, the internal workings of aramco in the 1940s through the 1960s. There, William MattieWilliam Eddie and several others with missionary backgrounds divined a whole institutional structure by which islam and protestantism could create a shared community, a shared knowledge of one another. They established the Iranian Affairs division and harnessed some of the leading scholars of islam. ,ut in the world of whos who this division was responsible for education, acculturation, and ecumenical exchange. This country and the theocracy, morale groups with small groups of christian worship. Whatcould not call them they were really were, congregations and parishes. Again, a system that proliferated in the shadows. Reinforcing their own kind of religious commitment to this enterprise as something more than the pursuit of black gold by the 50s. Groups,s attending the doing more. They called for a moral alliance , linking american catholics and protestants. Book, they talk about the effects of politics. Eisenhower wanted to create a judeochristian america to bring protestants, catholics, and juice together. Those in aramco wanted to reach out and confirm muslims within this quadrilateral. And with the broader international implications. The sense of vocation spoke to the aspirations of a whole cadre of visionaries. Powerbrokers with rising influence in the mid20th to, what iey adhered call a civil religion of crude. Big religion identified as ecumenical, civil, and cosmopolitan. Integration, combination, and to guarantee global influence. The linchpin of this cadre was, again, alluded to earlier with the rockefeller family. Support thewn to missionaries. Those working with a tougher soil in the middle east. Rockefeller placed the profits of the families standard oil empire in the service of a philanthropy that is scientifically informed international development. The realm of corporate relations a magazine toon keep employees, stockholders,. Nd the public to advance the sense of mission got a boost in 1940. None of it was more important linking oil to Global Economic and cultural initiatives then Nelson Rockefeller, pictured work withnter whose American Affairs placed him at the forefront of the u. S. Plans in south america. We dont have time to go into the influence that he had within the major oil circles. Venezuelaith oil in was crucial to his own kind of career development. Honesisted the oil company them and relations policies and deal with locals on a more equal but not fully equal playing field. Religion, embedding in the case of venezuela, catholicism. Provide a foundation for this vision. He reached out to his coexecutives and managers and called on them to be secular missionaries, if you will. Nelsons agenda would assume urgency in the 40s. And increasingly, latin america becomes a site of political contestation and fear of communism looming large. With that in mind, president truman would outline his. 4 program in 1949 where he said americas foreignpolicy had to and aon Economic Uplift vision of developing the globe to win hearts and minds through technologicaln of knowhow. It is in line with Nelson Rockefeller. And aramco would incidentally build the model and draw on the same Lessons Learned that Nelson Rockefeller would offer in venezuela. He was not outspokenly religious but longed to shape the Southern Hemisphere in an age of christian democracy. It would ensure americas place at the head of the new international order. Would, big oils apostles not have worn convictions on their sleeves. It would be for the sake of universal brotherhood. They werer much drained of dogmatism, the promise informed their actions. Oil and global topography became the scene on which it was played. It was certainly vital to understanding the United States role in international context. If we want to understand some of the most profound returns in u. S. Politics, look to the American Oil Patch. The unique landscape out of which there was a reversible challenge to the rockefeller loose gospel. Glow of refining fires, countless citizens stirred up and longheld the carbon gospel of their own, the one that i call wildcat christianity. In technical terms, they were wildcat themselves. Independent oil hunters who drilled wildcat discovery on domestic frontiers. The businesss founding legal code, which granted any mans authority to cap subsurface crude aggressively and on their terms, while the early industry essence that would endure across time. Senior, d rockefeller that rule of capture was in his mind wasteful. His was a bureaucratic outlet that lined up with the protestant worth work ethic. Rockefellers thought to duel oils laissezfaire freeforall by consolidating the industry. The competitors who had hoarded it in pennsylvania consider their rule of capture sacrosanct. It their wishes to act alone. Be it before their god or on their patch of soil. They reveled in risktaking and accepted the volatility, the chance in pursuit of profits and that there were no tomorrows. They were warrior heroes. Captured instianity sacred times of the resilient utopian expectations that accompanied their quest to drill. Amid their sectors boom bust cycles and fluctuations of health and wealth, their faith offered meaning through a theology that nurtured personal encounter with soil and an active higher being. A fierce individualism fortified by smallscale association. A notion that anticipated the violence of life in the age of oil. The turn of the 20th century, wildcat christianity was forced out of its original home in the alleghenies by the rockefellers and relocated west of the mississippi. Those of you are familiar with the history of oil mill this is a story of migration for western pennsylvania would flourish and to the 1890s. Epicenter of american oil would shift west. It would do so much to the surprise of the rockefellers john famously said in the early 19 1890s that he would drink every gallon of oil. That oil did not exist that that is how sure he was at the oil did not exist there. He would have the last laugh. Small producers w