Matthew Day, an independent scholar, historian in Lubbock that specializes in oil and agricultural, ranching history has announced the publishing of his 27th book.
Day has published three books (in digital and paperback form) since moving back to Lubbock in June 2018. Much of the work he does is based on research conducted at the Southwest Collection and Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
Having published 26 books through Amazon KDP. Some of those publications include: Accidental Resurgence? The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in West Texas: How Oil, Raw Materials, and Agriculture (Tried To) Save the Railroad Industry on the South Plains at Midcentury, which was released on April 27, 2020.
His 27th is titled, Lubbock, Levelland, Baghdad, Washington; OPEC, the Mallet Ranch, and the Changing World Order for Oil from Korea to NAFTA, 19501993. This one, as are the first 26 books, are all available through Amazon KDP. The cost is $20.24.
This is the sequel to Fueling Victory at Home, a 2019 book of his that dealt with the Mallet Ranch and various oil companies fared in the face of more than a decade’s worth of oil restrictions during World War II.
This book picks up where Fueling Victory at Home leaves off. Some of the key components of the narrative involve, of course, the Mallet Ranch’s dealings with oil companies through parts of the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. There will be other narratives that do not involve the main principals of the Mallet Ranch at that time (Christine DeVitt, Helen DeVitt Jones).
There will be chapters or portions of chapters dedicated to the Suez Canal crisis of 1956 and the Arab oil embargo of 1973-74. In the epilogue, Day detailed summary of several other oilrelated topics, namely oil production on the waters of the North Sea and off of the shores of Alaska. For those who are Texas politics buffs, Day even include information about the 1978 gubernatorial election, as well as some things about Allan Shivers and Price Daniel.
For those who want to see another story about the Mallet’s benevolence, they might be disappointed. But they might also be interested in a vignette from a 1989 public television telethon in Lubbock at the very start of the book.
The book is now available for $20.24 on Amazon.