-Gregg Easterbrook, author of THE PROGRESS PARADOX

Zoom offers a new way to think about cars and energy that's key to understanding the forces shaping business today. It's smart, well-informed and insightful--exactly what one would expect from two of The Economist's best journalists.

-Chris Anderson, author of THE LONG TAIL

Zoom puts oil in its sights and squeezes off one telling round after another. Car lovers will see a sunny future with other fuels; OPEC a steadily darkening twilight.

-R. James Woolsey, VP, Booz Allen Hamilton; former Director of Central Intelligence

An incisive analysis of the end of the petroleum age, including all its repercussions and opportunities.

-Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures

ZOOM takes readers inside the global race to build the car of the future, as pioneers in Japan, India, China, and the USA tackle the challenge of creating automobiles that will run on cleaner energy sources. As the authors succinctly write: Oil is the problem. Cars are the solution. We are living in the midst of a Great Awakening in whichenvironmentalists, entrepreneurs, and political leaders are forming new alliances to end our addiction to oil and create new technologies. The days of Big Oil and Big Auto are numbered, according to the authors, who show how we are in the midst of a major transformation from carbon-based energy sources to new fuels and technologies.

ZOOM traces the history of the linked industries of oil and automobiles, the industry of industries, and how the two have shaped domestic capitalism and the international landscape, creating both progress and peril. They explain how Toyota vanquished American competitors to become the world's largest automobile manufacturer and, more importantly, a leader in hybrid cars using electric power. They take us into the boardrooms of oil executives and show how some are boldly exploring new energy sources while others deny the dangers posed by oil and risk extinction. We meet the Thomas Edison of the 21st century, a legendary inventor whose revolutionary work is already having a positive impact on the environment and the economy.

With wide-ranging analysis and a keen view of the key players in the intersecting worlds of energy and automobiles, authors Iain Carson and Vijay Vaitheeswaran tell the story of what may be the most important challenge facing the industrial world: How to make the transition from the Age of Petroleum to a cleaner and better future.

-Gregg Easterbrook, author of THE PROGRESS PARADOX

Zoom offers a new way to think about cars and energy that's key to understanding the forces shaping business today. It's smart, well-informed and insightful--exactly what one would expect from two of The Economist's best journalists.

-Chris Anderson, author of THE LONG TAIL

Zoom puts oil in its sights and squeezes off one telling round after another. Car lovers will see a sunny future with other fuels; OPEC a steadily darkening twilight.

-R. James Woolsey, VP, Booz Allen Hamilton; former Director of Central Intelligence

An incisive analysis of the end of the petroleum age, including all its repercussions and opportunities.

-Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures

Oil is the problem. Cars are the solution.

Those two simple sentences by the authors of Zoom define the scope of their illuminating and important book, an examination of a transformation in business and culture that is occurring before our eyes.

We are living in the midst of a Great Awakening. People are seeking environmentally-sound alternatives to gas guzzlers. Detroit's reign is over. Oil companies, despite their billion-dollar profits, could be on the brink of extinction if they don't adapt. And citizens, all too aware that these industries have lobbied politicians into gridlock over energy policy, are mobilizing to support leaders who advocate new policies.

In Zoom, Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, award-winning correspondents for The Economist, show why and how geopolitical and economic forces are compelling the linked industries of oil and autos to change as never before.

Drawing on years of industry research-including dozens of interviews with motor and energy executives, top policymakers, and latter-day Fords and Edisons-Carson and Vaitheeswaran explain:

-How Toyota became the world's largest automaker through innovation and superior performance.

-Why American politicians have, for decades failed to address our energy issues and global warming-and how grassroots movements, along with individual entrepreneurs, innovators, and outsiders, are making real reform possible.

-How these Green revolutionaries are creating new products powered by hydrogen, electricity, bio-fuels, and digital technology.

As political leaders debate our energy, environmental and economic future, Zoom offers a lucid and visionary portrait of what that future could be. Anyone planning to vote will find compelling truth in its assertions and conclusions.