'Daniel H. Yergin' (born
February 6,
1947) is an American author, speaker, and economic researcher.
Born in
Los Angeles,
California to a ''
Chicago Tribune'' reporter father and a mother who was a sculptor and painter, Yergin received his B.A. from
Yale University in
1968, where he served on the board of the ''
Yale Daily News'', and was a founder of ''The New Journal''. He earned his
Ph.D. in
International Relations (
1974) from
Cambridge University where he was a
Marshall Scholar.
Yergin's first major book, ''Shattered Peace'', was a moderately 'revisionist' account of the origins of the
Cold War that attributed it chiefly to "tragic misconceptions" on the part of American policymakers who, in the post-WWII years, embraced the "
Riga axioms" of
George F. Kennan,
Loy W. Henderson,
Charles E. Bohlen, and
Elbridge Durbow rather than the "
Yalta axioms" of President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt. ''Shattered Peace'' was based on Yergin's Ph.D. dissertation.
Daniel Yergin is best known for '', a number-one
bestseller that won the
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in
1992. The book was adapted into a
PBS mini-series seen by more than 20 million viewers. Yergin was awarded the 1997 United States Energy Award for "lifelong achievements in energy and the promotion of international understanding." According to a biographical note in the March/April 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs, Yergin is currently at work on "a new book on oil and geopolitics."
Daniel Yergin also wrote and hosted a PBS production called "". This 3-part television production was an
advomentary (advocacy documentary) which made the case for free markets by interpreting the economic history of the 20th Century from a capitalist perspective. Yergin interviewed many high profile free-market advocates such as
Dick Cheney,
Bill Clinton,
Newt Gingrich, and
Robert Rubin, who presented economic history as a battle between centralized command economies and free market economies.
As recently as 2005, Yergin was commanding a speaking fee of $40,000.
Yergin is the co-founder and chairman of
Cambridge Energy Research Associates, an energy research consultancy. It was acquired by
IHS Energy in 2004.
Yergin is married to Angela Stent, Professor at
Georgetown University, and lives in Washington, D.C. Their son Alex and daughter Rebecca both attend
Yale University.
Books by Daniel Yergin
★ ''. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1977. Reprints: Penguin, 1978, 1980, ISBN 0-395-27267-X; Penguin, rev. & updated, 1990, ISBN 0-14-012177-3.
★ ''The Dependence Dilemma (Harvard Studies in International Affairs 43): Gasoline Consumption and America's Security''. University Press of America, 1980. ISBN 0-87674-047-6. Reprint: Rowman & Littlefield, 1984, ISBN 0-8191-4056-2.
★ ''1989 Fuels report hearing on the oil price forecast and scenario planning (CEC contract)''. Cambridge Energy Research Associates, 1989.
★ ''The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve''. Cambridge Energy Research Associates, 1990.
★ ''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991. ISBN 0-671-50248-4. Reprint: Simon & Schuster, 1992, ISBN 0-671-79932-0.
★ ''Gasoline and the American People''. Cambridge Energy Research Associates, 1991.
★ ''The Euro: Remaking Europe's Future: The New Europe poses enormous challenges — for the welfare state, for companies, and for political leaders''. Cambridge Energy Associates, 1998.
Books co-authored by Daniel Yergin
★ ''Energy Future: The Report of the Energy Project at the Harvard Business School''. New York: Random House, 1979. ISBN 0-394-50163-2. Reprints: Ballantine Books, ISBN 0-394-29349-5; Knopf, 3rd ed., 1982, ISBN 0-394-71063-0; Random House, new revised 3rd ed., 1990. [With
Robert B. Stobaugh.]
★ ''. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1982. ISBN 0-395-30517-9. Reprint: Viking Penguin Books, 1983, ISBN 0-14-006752-3. [With
Martin Hillenbrand.]
★ ''. New York: Random House, 1993. ISBN 0-679-42995-6. Reprint: Vintage, 1995, ISBN 0679759220 }. [With
Thane Gustafson.]
★ ''. Revised, retitled, and updated ed. New York: Free Press, 2002. ISBN 0-684-83569-X. (Original edition, entitled: ''The Commanding Heights: The Battle Between Government and the Marketplace That Is Remaking the Modern World'': New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998; ISBN 0-684-82975-4.) [With
Joseph A. Stanislaw.]
★ ''Global Energy: Challenges and Priorities (Foreign Affairs Editors' Choice)''. Council on Foreign Relations Press, 2001. ISBN 0-87609-305-5. [With
Amory Lovins and
Dennis Eklof.]
External links and references
★
Crisis in the Pipeline, by Daniel Yergin, The Wall Street Journal Online, August 10, 2006
★
Mr Bush and the Riga axioms, by S. Varadarajan
★
Daniel Yergin's profile in the Yale Economic Review, Spring 2005
★
A Price Tag to Growth Article in Mint