MUST WATCH video: Robert Newman's History of Oil (Iraq, peak oil & more)

The comedian and author gets to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years - but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, he places oil centre stage as the cause of all the commotion. Excellent and factual, Newman tells it how it is

download: http://www.indybay.org/uploads/history_of_oil.rm <- 29 megs
stream: http://www.indybay.org/uploads/history_of_oil.ram

This aired last night in the UK.

Newman's site: http://www.robnewman.com/

edit - (from a preview)

Pick of the week is ``Robert Newman's History of Oil.'' Written and performed by the clever one from ``Newman and Baddiel,'' it's an entertaining attempt to join the dots between oil and arms.
Newman traces the murky relationship between oil fields and battlefields from the 1914 deployment of a British battalion to Basra -- intercepting a German extension of the Orient Express from Constantinople to Baghdad -- to the present day.

Viewers will be relieved that there are plenty of belly laughs to offset the browbeating. Newman's asides about Salvador Dali's ``magic checkbook'' and battalions manned solely by war poets are hilarious. A sketch about ``Axis of Evil'' gang members toughing it out in a garage forecourt is brilliantly satirical. Though much of his message is scary, this is a sharp analysis.

of humor and truth. WWI an oil war beginning with an invasion of Iraq. Eisenhower working with Churchill to install the Shah of Iran - and insisting on Kermit Roosevelt to be point man in Tehran who chose a former Nazi who was in prison to head the military aspect of the coup. Great history lesson. Also peak oil and currency wars. Thanks for posting this.

this fascinating especially the euro wars section.

This is what Newman is currently working on - he's been performing it as a reading with songs over the past week but I don't think he's decided what he wants the finished product to be (a tour, a book, a website, etc).
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NARRATOR: The history of the world backwards. What does it look like? From a distance we may see the mighty sweeps of population. We gaze in horror upon American Indians as in 1900 they begin a process of ethnic cleansing, so relentless and ruthless that by 1492 there is not one single European living on the North American landmass.

Approach and we may see the wars and the conflicts, hear the cries from the battlefield and the widow?s lament. Closer still, observe how a man?s life changes his character. In the southern cone of Africa, Nelson Mandela enters prison a sweet-natured Spice Girl fan but emerges from long incarceration an embittered terrorist bent on the armed overthrow of the state.

Closer still and we see... ourselves! Look! Look... look...!

http://www.robnewman.com/history.html