Straightforward, simple, engaging, informative, all-encompassing: These descriptions capture “The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel” handsomely.
The latest historical/biographical epic written by New York Times bestseller Douglas Brunt does not disappoint, but takes an unknown subject, explores its international implications, and reveals in a persuasive, engaging fashion how interesting a supposedly marginal facet of European history can be, and how it had international implications, even for the United States, and especially for today.
Brunt takes the reader on a detailed history tour, not just of a once-famed oil magnate and his family enterprise, but also of his interactions with Russian dignitaries, the rise of Soviet revolutionaries, and the economic and political power plays of a committed family of entrepreneurs.
He combines sweeping views and historical venues, centering his history on the famed life and work of the Nobel family. Not just Alfred, who invented dynamite, then established the Nobel Peace Prize program and ceremony to reward those who do good for humanity. Brunt tells us about the little-known (until now) nephew Emanuel, named after Swedish Nobel patriarch Immanuel.
The Nobels were quite a noble family, engaging in all kinds of inventions, factory output, and energy distribution. Patriarch Immanuel faced hard times, trying to secure business contracts with the Swedish and Russian governments. The family endured privations, but the innovative spirit never left the family. While Immanuel ended his life in relative ruin and poverty, his children and grandchildren would succeed him and achieve considerable success.
Brunt doesn’t dwell too much on the failures of the Nobel patriarch, but expounds on the widespread accomplishments of his sons through the mid-1800s into the early 1900s. Before the Great War and the Russian Revolution(s) that followed, the Nobel Brothers (Robert and Ludvig) would establish a formidable oil industry in Russia, stretching from St. Petersburg to Baku in modern-day Azerbaijan. The successor to their impressive energy empire, Emanuel Nobel, would employ his latent ingenuity and business acumen to rival and then overtake the largest oil producer in the United States, Standard Oil under the Rockefellers.
Impressive indeed!
Brunt’s subtitle is not subtle about the expansive impact of other world events during Nobel’s tenure as an oil magnate: Romanovs, Revolutionaries, and the Forgotten Titan who Fueled the World.
Brunt’s work unfolds for us an epic incorporating the political reforms and failures of the Romanov family, from Tsar Alexander II, who freed the Russian serfs from feudal tutelage and welcomed foreign investment—thus setting the stage for Nobel enlargement in Russia—to the mistakes of the final Tsar of Russia, and throughout, Emanuel Nobel is working the immense, lucrative oil fields of Baku, connecting machine development and combustion engine manufacturing.
This latest contribution to 19th and 20th-century historiography is striking not just in the ease of reading this compelling history, but also in how vividly and seamlessly he relates the swift shifts of leadership, political tumult, and trauma that Emanuel Nobel endured during the Bolshevik Revolution that took over Russia. Brunt treats us to a sample of tumultuous Russian history, including the rising radical socialist cause in the country, the assassination of the reformist Tsar, the autocratic pushback of his successor son, and the ultimate failings of his grandson, the martyred Tsar Nicholas II. We learn about the Allied efforts to keep Russia in the war, their reluctant but ultimately necessary outreach to the Soviet government, which took hold of Russia in 1917.
I have read a number of modern histories that incorporate diverse stories into one large, overarching epic. One history of World War Two that I had read (I will refrain from mentioning the title, out of respect for the author) focused on a famous Christian missionary who suffered yet survived the Holocaust. The writer also attempted to flesh out his account by including the remarkable humanitarian efforts of a famous movie actress during World War II. The whole effort leaves the reader with the sense that the book should have been two separate books. The writer placed the two accounts side by side only because they took place in the same time and place. Despite that tenuous connection, the two heroines never cross paths, and the reader is left wondering: “Why write about them both, when the author could have focused more effectively on one account?” The lack of connection and focus undermined the overall scope and the wonder of that book.
Those failures do not emerge in Brunt’s compelling history. On the contrary, Brunt combines otherwise disparate threads of history into a tightly-woven tapestry, and the different interlocking parts reveal a welcome result. The parts do not overwhelm the whole, and the audience can appreciate the whole without losing appreciation for the parts. In one passage, Brunt will describe the extensive labor efforts and philanthropy to provide for his employees in Baku. Then he leads you into the painful upbringing of Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, aka Joseph Stalin. He was raised near the oil fields owned and supervised by the Nobel family, and even worked in the oil riggings of the rival Rothschild oil drilling outfits.
What starts as a book about an oil drilling family and their ventures into energy production twists and turns into international political intrigue, and the reader is compelled to read more. We get to see how the communist dictator and megalomaniac Stalin features in the world oil politics of Russia, the Great War, and beyond as well.
We then learn about the emerging political machinations of Vladimir Lenin, his right-hand man Leon Trotsky, the inception of the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, followed by their increasingly fraught divide over how to overthrow the Romanov autocracy. We even get a segment about the vile priest Rasputin and his diabolical hold on Tsar Nicholas and Alexandra.
Throughout the book, Brunt touches on and elaborates on the burden, unease, and finally clamoring of an exploding Russian working class. Once released from peasant farming, they faced different economic restrictions and hardships in an increasingly industrialized Russia. How does the Romanov dynasty handle these challenges? How does the Nobel Brothers Petroleum Company navigate the expanding political tensions, all while incorporating new inventions and making immense profits during World War I? What role does this rising Russian proletariat play in the political upheavals to come? The Lost Empire didn’t get lost because of sudden, tragic failures on the part of Emmanuel Nobel. He was a man ahead of his time, who capitalized on the times, but who was overwhelmed by the hardships of others in their time, too.
This book is timely, for sure. Energy production and energy wars dominate the headlines even now, with President Trump’s war with Iran following his arrest of Nicolas Maduro and his skillful trade diplomacy with China. Reading Brunt’s sweeping history of the Nobel oil empire brings into greater clarity how oil politics has become such sticky, unavailable international politics to this day.
If you are looking for a grand story on modern Russian history, if you are interested in a crash course on the rise of Soviet Communism, or if you are simply seeking a good read that connects so much into one great history epic, The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel is the book for you.
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