Preview
  • Boomtown Blues (Revised Edition)

  • Colorado Oil Shale (Mining the American West)
  • By: Andrew Gulliford
  • Narrated by: J. Bruce McRell
  • Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Boomtown Blues (Revised Edition)

By: Andrew Gulliford
Narrated by: J. Bruce McRell
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Boomtown Blues examines the remarkable 100-year history of oil shale development and chronicles the social, environmental, and financial havoc created by the industry's continual cycles of boom and bust.

In 1980, Exxon U.S.A., the world's largest corporation, began development of a five-billion-dollar oil shale industry in the pristine Colorado River Valley. Within eighteen months, Exxon had canceled its elaborate Colony project and 2,100 workers were immediately laid off. Boomtown Blues chronicles the social, environmental, and economic havoc created by one of the most expensive boom and bust cycles in the history of the American West. This 100-year historical account of the turbulent oil shale industry describes exploration and settlement in the Colorado River Valley as well as land ownership changes brought about since the first boom of 1915-1925.

Boomtown Blues is an important reference for historians, social scientists, environmentalists, policymakers, city planners, and all those who care about the fate of the American West.

The book is published by University Press of Colorado. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2003 University Press of Colorado (P)2022 Redwood Audiobooks
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"Gulliford's scalpel exposes the myths and miscalculations that caused the leaders of this country to launch a synfuels fiasco a decade ago." (Stewart Udall, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior)

"An important contribution...Gulliford's full and compassionate portrait of the social consequences of corporate irresponsibility provides Westerners with a prime opportunity to wrestle with the lessons of history." (Patricia Nelson Limerick, University of Colorado at Boulder)

What listeners say about Boomtown Blues (Revised Edition)

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.