Michael T Klare April 17, 2008

Michael T. Klare's new book, 'Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy,' is about conquistadors who roamed through South America in the search for gold that drove the clash of empires. A hundred years later, as the great powers fought over the West Indies, it was the quest for land that could grow sugar cane. Today, the key commodity is oil. No one knows the subject better than Michael Klare, and his book is a trenchant and informative guide to what the fatal thirst for oil means for the tensions and rivalries of our fragile planet.