Very interesting for a Texas modern history buff and anyone looking for insight into oil, politics, and the sadness of some wealthy families. ( )

Chronicle of Texas oil. Weaving together the multigenerational sagas of the industry's four wealthiest families, Burrough brings to life the men known in their day as the Big Four: Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson, all swaggering Texas oil tycoons who owned sprawling ranches and mingled with presidents and Hollywood stars. Seamlessly charting their collective rise and fall,

Fascinating. ( )

This is a relatively entertaining and educational look at the mega-fortunes built through the discovery and exploitation of oil and gas in Texas in the early years of the 20th century. The four individuals who make up the lion’s share of the work; Hugh Cullen, Sid Richardson, Clint Murchison and H. L. Hunt, are profiled from their early years, through their wealth building phase and then, in most cases through a period of wealth dissipation generally accomplished by their heirs.

The book touches upon the social, political and economic background of the country at large and the state of Texas in particular, as the discovery of oil and the rise of the automobile (and subsequently the OPEC oil embargo) act in concert to generate truly outrageous sums of money concentrated in relatively few hands. That those hands turned out to be in most cases relatively uneducated, bigoted spendthrifts only makes the story that much more entertaining.

Many of the actors were passingly familiar to me (Nelson Bunker Hunt in particular), though surprisingly, some I’d never heard of, despite their compelling stories and huge fortunes. To be honest, most of the major players were well before my time and much of the money had been squandered by the time I was grown. Again, a moderately entertaining work and a history lesson of some value. ( )