EACH year brings forth a new crop of books aimed at showing how the giant, vertically integrated, multinational oil companies-with the active aid of their many well-placed allies within the American government-have enriched themselves at the expense of the American people and the rest of the world. Robert Engler’s The Brotherhood of Oil and the late John M. Blair’s The Control of Oil are the latest examples.* The title of each book accurately reflects its author’s preoccupation with the consequences of the monopoly power allegedly enjoyed and exploited by the major integrated oil companies. However, there are important differences between the two in style, substance, and methodology.