Small Town, Big Oil, David W. Moore
Small Town, Big Oil, David W. Moore
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Small Town, Big Oil
The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the Richest Man in the World-And Won

Author: David W. Moore

Narrator: Rebecca Gibel

Unabridged: 8 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/11/2019


Synopsis

Never underestimate the underdog.

In the fall of 1973, the Greek oil shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, husband of President John F. Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and arguably the richest man in the world, proposed to build an oil refinery on the narrow New Hampshire coast, in the town of Durham. At the time, it would have cost $600 million to build and was expected to generate 400,000 barrels of oil per day, making it the largest oil refinery in the world. The project was vigorously supported by the governor, Meldrim Thomson, and by William Loeb, the notorious publisher of the only statewide newspaper, the Manchester Union Leader.

But three women vehemently opposed the project—Nancy Sandberg, the town leader who founded and headed Save Our Shores; Dudley Dudley, the freshman state rep who took the fight to the state legislature; and Phyllis Bennett, the publisher of the local newspaper that alerted the public to Onassis's secret acquisition of the land. Small Town, Big Oil is the story of how the residents of Durham, led by these three women, out-organized, out-witted, and out-maneuvered the governor, the media, and the Onassis cartel to hand the powerful Greek billionaire the most humiliating defeat of his business career, and spare the New Hampshire seacoast from becoming an industrial wasteland.

About David W. Moore

David W. Moore is an award-winning author, and currently a Senior Fellow at the Carsey Center for Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. He is also the polling director and frequent columnist for iMediaEthics.org, for which he won the 2015 EPPY Award for his news/political commentary. For twenty-one years (1972-1993), he taught political science at the University of New Hampshire, and for the next thirteen years he worked at the Gallup Organization as a senior editor of the Gallup Poll. He became affiliated with UNH again in 2008. He is the author of three nonfiction trade books: The Opinion Makers: An Insider Exposes the Truth Behind the Polls; How to Steal an Election: The Inside Story of How George Bush's Brother and Fox Network Miscalled the 2000 Election and Changed the Course of History; and The Super Pollsters: How They Measure and Manipulate Public Opinion in America. He also coauthored The First Primary: New Hampshire's Outsize Role in Presidential Nominations with Andrew E. Smith. He has published essays and articles in the New York Times, the Nation, the Boston Globe, Public Opinion Quarterly, New York Newsday, Public Perspectives, and numerous other books and journals.


Reviews

Goodreads review by K on June 16, 2019

everyone who lives on the Seacoast area of NH should know this story. This book was heavily researched and annotated. At times it was almost too much detail and the names started getting confusing. The political processes described were quite involved and although important, made reading it a bit bo......more

Goodreads review by Jim on March 14, 2025

An inspiring story about the power of the people… or more specifically, the power of women… and how they prevailed victorious over a Goliath of Capitalism and greed in small town America.......more

Goodreads review by Caitlin on December 22, 2020

A hometown tale of local activists (including the legendary Dudley Dudley) defeating big business. Can’t imagine what the New Hampshire seacoast would be like today if Aristotle Onassis had succeeded in building his oil refinery there in the 70s. Live free or die, and don’t tell Granite Staters how......more

Goodreads review by Emilio on January 12, 2023

This book tells the story of how a small town in New Hampshire fought against the building of an oil refinery along its coast. The same kind of story has played out in other communities across the country. There have been fights against nuclear power plants, wind farms, solar farms, and fracking wel......more

Goodreads review by Alicia on March 11, 2024

I loved this book. Writer David Moore takes you back to the winter of 1973 - 1974 when Aristotle Onassis attempted to build a massive, 400,000 barrel a day oil refinery on the pristine Great Bay estuary, in the small town of Durham, New Hampshire. I'd heard that a huge oil refinery on Great Bay had......more