Best Nonfiction Books about Mining and Oil
3. 
4. 
The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters 4.01 avg rating — 2,785 ratings
5. 
Arizona Ghost Towns and Mining Camps: A Travel Guide to History
by:
Philip Varney
3.67 avg rating — 36 ratings 
8. 
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
by:
Daniel Yergin
4.43 avg rating — 12,040 ratings 
10. 
The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World
by:
Russell Gold
3.78 avg rating — 779 ratings 11. 
Barren Lands: An Epic Search For Diamonds in the North American Arctic
by:
Kevin Krajick
4.39 avg rating — 84 ratings 
11. 
Groundbreaking! America's New Quest for Mineral Independence
by:
Ned Mamula
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating 
11. 
The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia's Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom
by:
James R. Green
4.33 avg rating — 569 ratings 
18. 
The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream
by:
H.W. Brands
4.05 avg rating — 1,630 ratings 18. 
Energy Development and Wildlife Conservation in Western North America
by:
David E. Naugle
4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings 18. 
Great American Outpost: Dreamers, Mavericks, and the Making of an Oil Frontier
by:
Maya Rao
3.62 avg rating — 130 ratings 21. 
The Fight for Coal Mine Health and Safety: A Documented History
by:
Ken Hechler
it was ok 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating 
22. 
Flames of Discontent: The 1916 Minnesota Iron Ore Strike
by:
Gary Kaunonen
4.24 avg rating — 25 ratings 24. 
25. 
Twilight of the Jackass Prospector: Death Valley Area Portraits of the 1930's
by:
George R. Carter
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings 25. 
Coal Dust on the Fiddle: Songs and Stories of the Bituminous Industry
by:
George Korson
4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings 27. 
Thunder In the Mountains: The West Virginia Mine War, 1920-21
by:
Lon Savage
4.18 avg rating — 240 ratings 
30. 
32. 
Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets (Helix Book)
by:
John S. Lewis
4.13 avg rating — 277 ratings 32. 
Matewan Before the Massacre: Politics, Coal and the Roots of Conflict in a West Virginia Mining Community 3.79 avg rating — 28 ratings
34. 
34. 
Mountaintop Mining in Appalachia: Understanding Stakeholders and Change in Environmental Conflict
by:
Susan F. Hirsch
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings 
36. 
Vanishing Sands: Losing Beaches to Mining
by:
Orrin H. Pilkey
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating 38. 
Copper;: The encompassing story of mankind's first metal, it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings
38. 
Collapse of Dignity: The Story of a Mining Tragedy and the Fight Against Greed and Corruption in Mexico
by:
Napoleon Gomez
4.10 avg rating — 39 ratings 40. 
41. 
Ghost Towns of Colorado: Your Guide to Colorado's Historic Mining Camps and Ghost Towns
by:
Philip Varney
4.03 avg rating — 33 ratings 41. 
43. 
Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness Radical Strip Mining and the Devastation of Appalachia
by:
Erik Reece
4.14 avg rating — 659 ratings 44. 
Ghost Towns of the Mountain West: Your Guide to the Hidden History and Old West Haunts of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Mont
by:
Philip Varney
3.72 avg rating — 60 ratings 44. 
The History of the Standard Oil Company (Unexpurgated Edition)
by:
Ida Tarbell
3.91 avg rating — 246 ratings 46. 
Ghost Towns of California: Your Guide to the Hidden History and Old West Haunts of California
by:
Philip Varney
4.05 avg rating — 20 ratings 
48. 
Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the World's Deadliest Place
by:
Peter Eichstaedt
3.41 avg rating — 97 ratings 49. 
A Ray of Light: Reinhard Heydrich, Lidice, and the North Staffordshire Miners
by:
Russell Phillips
4.23 avg rating — 30 ratings 50. 
History of Mining in Arizona (Volume II)
by:
J. Michael Canty
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings 50. 
Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor's Last Century
by:
Howard Zinn
3.81 avg rating — 142 ratings 
52. 
Hidden America: From Coal Miners to Cowboys, an Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make This Country Work 3.83 avg rating — 1,454 ratings
54. 
56. 
Mountains of ore and rivers of gold: Stories of a contemporary prospector 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings
56. 
Blood and Oil: Mohammed bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power
by:
Bradley Hope
4.25 avg rating — 9,598 ratings 58. 
The History Of The Comstock Lode (Special Publication (Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology), 24.)
by:
Grant H. Smith
3.78 avg rating — 18 ratings 58. 
Blood, Oil, and the Axis: The Allied Resistance Against a Fascist State in Iraq and the Levant, 1941
by:
John Broich
3.79 avg rating — 57 ratings 60. 
Midas of the rockies;: The story of Stratton and Cripple Creek
by:
Frank Waters
4.12 avg rating — 16 ratings 60. 
Drugs, Oil & War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia & Indochina
by:
Peter Scott
4.02 avg rating — 106 ratings 62. 
A Passion For Gold: An Autobiography
by:
Ralph J. Roberts
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings 62. 
Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City
by:
Steve Early
3.65 avg rating — 75 ratings 64. 
Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline
by:
Lisa Margonelli
3.74 avg rating — 442 ratings 
67. 
Going to Stay: How George W. Bush Mired America in the Long War for Oil & Empire
by:
Thomas Powers
4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings 
68. 
Breaking Rockefeller: The Incredible Story of the Ambitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire
by:
Peter B. Doran
4.15 avg rating — 665 ratings 
70. 
A Field Philosopher's Guide to Fracking: How One Texas Town Stood Up to Big Oil and Gas
by:
Adam Briggle
3.62 avg rating — 60 ratings 72. 
Men To Match My Mountains: The Opening of the Far West 1840-1900
by:
Irving Stone
4.11 avg rating — 1,278 ratings 72. 
Poison Tea: How Big Oil and Big Tobacco Invented the Tea Party and Captured the GOP
by:
Jeff Nesbit
3.71 avg rating — 51 ratings 
74. 
American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century
by:
Kevin Phillips
3.89 avg rating — 2,769 ratings 
78. 
The making of a hardrock miner: An account of the experiences of a worker in copper, molybdenum, and uranium mines in the West really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 22 ratings
78. 
Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
by:
Ahmed Rashid
3.98 avg rating — 4,735 ratings 80. 
81. 
82. 
Dirty Gold: The Rise and Fall of an International Smuggling Ring
by:
Jay Weaver
3.86 avg rating — 296 ratings 83. 
84. 
Rare: The High-Stakes Race to Satisfy Our Need for the Scarcest Metals on Earth
by:
Keith Veronese
3.43 avg rating — 185 ratings 
86. 
Written in Blood: Courage and Corruption in the Appalachian War of Extraction
by:
Wess Harris
4.28 avg rating — 39 ratings 87. 
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II 4.38 avg rating — 7,035 ratings
91. 
Soul Full of Coal Dust: A Fight for Breath and Justice in Appalachia
by:
Chris Hamby
4.31 avg rating — 753 ratings 92. 
Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia 4.46 avg rating — 24 ratings
93. 
Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future
by:
Jeff Goodell
3.99 avg rating — 451 ratings 
95. 
Thunder on the Mountain: Death at Massey and the Dirty Secrets Behind Big Coal 3.54 avg rating — 113 ratings
97. 
Energy Metropolis: An Environmental History of Houston and the Gulf Coast (History of the Urban Environment, 66)
by:
Martin V. Melosi
3.89 avg rating — 9 ratings 98. 
The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
by:
Daniel Yergin
4.18 avg rating — 5,491 ratings 99. 
Coal Wars: The Future of Energy and the Fate of the Planet
by:
Richard Martin
3.69 avg rating — 90 ratings 100. 
Panic at the Pump: The Energy Crisis and the Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s
by:
Meg Jacobs
3.86 avg rating — 97 ratings