Panic At the Pump: The Energy Crisis and the Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s

FEATURING MEG JACOBS – Politicians often like to bring up the US’s “dependency on foreign oil” as a popular talking point. The phrase originated in the 1970s when the Arab oil producing countries launched an embargo on the US and provoked an energy crisis. Americans who remember that time period recall long lines of cars waiting to get gas, and gas stations running out. It was a moment of national vulnerability for a country that was intent on building up its global dominance.

Meg Jacobs teaches history and public affairs at Princeton University. Her earlier book was called Pocketbook Politics: Economic Citizenship in Twentieth Century America. Her latest book is Panic At the Pump: The Energy Crisis and the Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s.