Armand Hammer. Adaptations The Prize was the basis for an eight-hour documentary television series titled The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, & Power, narrated by Donald Sutherland and broadcast by PBS in 1992–1993. The series is said to have been seen by 20 million people in the United States. The book is also available as an abridged audiobook, read by Bob Jamieson with a run time of 2 hours and 53 minutes. In 2011 Yergin's The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World was published by Penguin Press. The Quest is considered the sequel to The Prize. Origin of the title The name of the book is taken from a quote by Winston Churchill in 1912, when he was First Lord of the Admiralty, long before becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was arguing for the conversion of British warships from coal to fuel oil, but noted the geopolitical ramifications of tying Britain's fortunes to oil. As Yergin quotes Churchill: To build any large additional number of oil-burning ships meant basing our naval supremacy upon oil. But oil was not found in appreciable quantities in our islands. If we required it we must carry it by sea in peace or war from distant countries. We had, on the other hand, the finest supply of the best steam coal in the world, safe in our mines under our own land. To commit the Navy irrevocably to oil was indeed to "take arms against a sea of troubles." Yet, if the difficulties and risk could be surmounted, "we should be able to raise the whole power and efficiency of the Navy to a definitely higher level; better ships, better crews, higher economies, more intense forms of war power"—in a word, "mastery itself was the prize of the venture." [Emphasis added] References External links Daniel Yergin Official Website 1990 non-fiction books Books about economic history Books about petroleum History of the petroleum industry Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction-winning works Simon & Schuster books