This anthology explores the issue of the United States' dependence on oil. Can the country attain energy independence? Does the dependence on foreign oil weaken the economy? Is dependence on foreign oil a security threat? Can the United States transition from oil if it must, or is the country too deeply invested? This book gives evidence to both sides of these questions. Features previously published content from sources such as Jordan Weissman, Anne Korin, Pew Charitable Trusts, and the National Corn Growers Association.

Findings: the U.S. energy system and the role of imported oil and gas -- Findings: how dependence on imported energy affects U.S. foreign policy -- Findings and recommendations: U.S. domestic energy policy -- Findings and recommendations: The conduct of U.S. foreign policy -- Additional view.

Over a Barrel provides the first comprehensive analysis of the costs of U.S. foreign oil dependence and how they might be reduced.

This anthology explores the issue of the United States' dependence on oil. Can the country attain energy independence? Does the dependence on foreign oil weaken the economy? Is dependence on foreign oil a security threat? Can the United States transition from oil if it must, or is the country too deeply invested? This book gives evidence to both sides of these questions. Features previously published content from figures such as Barack Obama, Skikha Dalmia, Julia A. Seymour, and Bradford Plumer.

American dependence on foreign oil has long been described as a serious threat to U.S. national security, and continues to be a political flashpoint even as domestic fracking eases the US' reliance on imported energy. Oil and American Identity offers a fresh perspective on the subject by reframing 'energy dependency' as a cultural discourse with intimate connections to American views on independence, freedom, consumption, abundance, progress and American exceptionalism. Through a detailed reading of primary literature, Sebastian Herbstreuth also shows how the dangers of foreign oil are linked to American descriptions of foreign oil producers as culturally different und thus 'undependable'. Herbstreuth shows how even reliable imports from the Middle East are portrayed as dangerous and undesirable because this region is particularly 'foreign' from an American point of view, while oil from friendly countries like Canada is cast as a benign form of energy trade. Oil and American Identity rewrites the history of U.S. foreign oil dependence as a cultural history of the United States in the 20th century.