After decades of civil war and instability, the African country of Angola is experiencing a spectacular economic boom thanks to its most valuable natural resource: oil. But oil extraction--both on- and offshore--is a toxic remedy for the country's economic ills, with devastating effects on both the environment and traditional livelihoods. Focusing on the everyday realities of people living in the extraction zones, Kristin Reed explores the exclusion, degradation, and violence that are the fruits of petrocapitalism in Angola.

Kristin Reed holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a program consultant to humanitarian and environmental nonprofit organizations.

“An absolutely necessary work of political ecology. Centering on the polluted, impoverished coastal communities of northwest Angola, Crude Existence convincingly shows how the ‘curse of oil’ in extractive regions is a curse of political opacity and environmental violence, among other factors. It would be of great value to the people of Angola if this book could be widely read.”—Jean-Michel Mabeko-Tali, Howard University