Dr. Paul Anthony Chastko
Positions
Department Head
Graduate Program Director
Associate Professor
Contact information
Background
Educational Background
Doctor of Philosophy History, Ohio University, 2002
M.A. History, University of Calgary, 1997
B.A. History, University of Calgary, 1995
Biography
As a recognized expert in North American oil and gas history, my research and writing examines the environmental challenge to oil sands production and cross-border ties between the Canadian and U.S. oil industry. My first book, Developing Alberta’s Oil Sands: From Karl Clark to Kyoto (2004), argued the interaction between four separate entities – the state, the oil industry, the scientific community, and the world petroleum market – created a dynamic and challenging environment capable of astonishing feats of co-operation and commerce. My next book, The Boom: Oil, Politics, and Culture in Alberta, 1913-1924 analyzes the creation of Alberta's unique oil culture and illustrates the various ways in which the ideology of free market capitalism, as well as the history and experiences of the 1914 Turner Valley boom, shaped Albertans’ approach to politics and business.
I am seeking graduate students interested in the global petroleum industry and US foreign policy.
Projects
Based on extensive archival research at the Glenbow Western Research Centre, the Provincial Archives of Alberta, and the Library and Archives of Canada, The Boom illustrates the various ways in which ideology, history, and experiences shaped Albertans’ approach to politics and business.
Celebrating unvarnished individualism, free-market capitalism and largely free from regulatory oversight by the province and federal governments, Calgarians, in the words of one reporter, took to oil “like a wino to the bottle.” In a matter of weeks, over 500 oil companies were created; fewer than 50 drilled for oil and, by 1919, less than 5 produced wet gas laced with petroleum condensates. Unemployed real estate salesmen became stock brokers as Calgarians emptied their savings to invest in a largely unproven oil field. A group of local businessmen and civic leaders joined together to create the Calgary Stock Exchange to try and tame rampant speculation and preserve investment capital for companies.
The creation of Alberta’s oil culture is explored by analyzing public discussions, advertisements, sermons, speeches, court cases, trade and popular press articles regarding the development of Alberta’s oil and gas from the first petroleum seeps along the Turner Valley anticline through the first oil boom in 1914.
Awards
- Faculty of Arts Teaching Award (Established Teacher), 2021
- Faculty of Arts Leader in Internationalization, 2014
- Article of the Year, Petroleum History Society. 2012
Publications
- “Optimism, Fear, and Free Trade: Canada’s Winding Path to a Globalized Petroleum Industry: 1930-2005”. Paul Anthony Chastko. University of Calgary Press. 33 pages. (2021)
- "Challenge of the Price Taker: Alberta’s Petroleum Industry and the Dilemmas of Oil Price Volatility, 1947-2015” in Amelia Kiddle (editor) Energy in the America. Paul Anthony Chastko. University of Calgary Press. 31. (2021)
- "Anonymity and Ambivalence: The Canadian and American Oil Industries and the Emergence of Continental Oil". Paul Anthony Chastko. Journal of Ameircan History. 11 pages. (2012)
- Developing Alberta's Oil Sands: From Karl Clark to Kyoto. Paul Anthony Chastko. University of Calgary Press. 338 pages. (2004)
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