Victor McFarland
Bio:
Victor McFarland is an assistant professor of history at the University of Missouri. McFarland’s research interests include oil and the energy industry, along with related topics including the environment, political economy, and U.S. relations with the Middle East. He is currently working on a book manuscript that examines the oil crisis of the 1970s. Originally from North Idaho, Professor McFarland received his B.A. from Stanford University and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Yale University.
Thesis Description:
The Oil Crisis of the 1970s: An International History
McFarland’s dissertation examined the changing relationship between the United States and the Middle East during the oil crisis of the 1970s. In that decade, oil prices soared and control over the world’s richest petroleum reserves passed from Western-owned companies into the hands of oil-producing nations like Saudi Arabia. The project used both American and Arab sources to explore the ways in which the oil crisis affected the American economy, triggered an economic boom in the Arab Gulf, and permanently changed the relationship between the United States and the Middle East.
