The centenary history is a massive and beautifully illustrated set of three volumes, plus a smaller volume with statistics, listings of senior management, a cumulative index and a set of three DVDs.
The history was written by a strong team of historians at Utrecht University, based on full access to the Group's archives. It was published in a Dutch version by Boom Publishers of Amsterdam and in an English translation by the Oxford University Press. Boom were responsible for the indexing and probably for the translation.
Having worked in Shell from 1950 to 1972, with a father who was there from 1920, and having spent the rest of my career in the oil industry in New Zealand with a joint venture led by Shell, I was keenly interested in the Group history. Also, as this web-site describes, I had recently rewritten a faulty history of Shell in New Zealand.
I was surprised, as soon as I delved into the centenary history, to find obvious errors. I reported them to Shell International's archivist, Veronica Davies, whose reaction was one of deep concern. I undertook to pass on any further mistakes that I might find. I soon had extensive notes that I submitted over a period. The notes grew to the point where I formed them into a critique for which I obtained an ISBN, sending multiple copies to Shell Centre. Before committing to formal publication I continued my analysis and more than doubled the length of the original notes to 198 pages (despite changing to a smaller typeface).
My notes were passed by Shell to an outside historian who was undertaking a review of the history and also went up to senior Shell management in London. The findings were discussed with the historians and with Oxford, the publisher of the English edition.
In the course of five months I worked through the history about three times, steadily finding more and more problems. They included actual errors of fact, errors in spelling, errors in maps, diagrams and tables, errors in names of people (including some managing directors), names of companies, names of places, errors in dates.
There were problems with English idiom and usage, problems with punctuation and particularly hyphenation, problems with text that had clearly been altered incompletely resulting in errors in wording. Much of the English translation showed distinctly Dutch word order
Above all, the indexing of the set of volumes was disastrous, with several indexers having worked differently and inconsistently, making a nonsensical overall structure and with thousands of omissions. Several important subjects failed to be indexed. Many subjects were indexed from one volume but omitted for the other two. "London" was indexed for volumes 2 and 3 but not for volume 1. Natural gas was indexed under "natural gas" by one indexer and under "gas, natural" by another.
For a book of this importance the extent and variety of the errors were nothing short of astonishing. They point to inadequate work by the proof readers, the translators, the typesetters and the indexers. Above all they point to totally ineffective control by the editorial committee and to very poor work by the publishers. If I, as a retired septuagenarian, could see a large number of obvious faults in the first few minutes of looking at the history, how could a senior editorial committee with great Shell knowledge fail to do so? If they had checked just one chapter in detail, errors should have shouted at them.
The explanation, I believe, as with the history of Shell in New Zealand, is that there was an unquestioning trust in the work of the "professionals", the writers, the publishers and all their acolytes. After first seeing so much that was obviously wrong, I brought an attitude of deep and ongoing suspicion, a continual questioning of everything I read. The errors multiplied as I read and reread the story, finding more and more problems each time. I am quite sure that there was not the slightest expectation that anyone in the world would be prepared to take on such a dedicated task of examination.
The irony is that I had only just wrapped up my revised version of the New Zealand history and had written several times to Shell New Zealand, Shell in Melbourne and also to Shell Centre, explaining the work that I had done. Thus in theory the Group should have been aware that in little old New Zealand there was a dedicated Shellman who had been prepared to spend nearly three years in dissecting and correcting a company history. Clearly that fact failed to percolate to the consciousness of those who were immersed in producing the Group history. Thus another possible lifeline failed to be grasped.
Despite the very large number of errors, the story of the Shell Group is a fascinating one and the photographs are outstanding. It is the story of the Group's growth and development told very much at boardroom level. It is told independently, with respect but without the flattery that overwhelms so many corporate histories. I believe that it misses some important points but that is probably inevitable.
Unfortunately it is not only the content of the book that has fallen short. The binding of all four volumes of my set has proved shockingly inadequate. My advice from bookbinders is that these very heavy volumes were poorly glued. Sections are coming adrift in many places after just five months of careful handling. I am told that recent changes in bookbinding glues are the problem. Heavy glazed paper, sometimes with further gloss overlays, will not absorb glue and there is very little to hold the sections together.
I do find it somewhat disquieting when I see the Shell history advertised by such major booksellers as Blackwells and Amazon. Though I would like to think that my own set was exceptionally badly bound, the comments from my book-binder friends are far from encouraging. My experience has been well reported, to Shell International, to the Oxford University Press, to the Dutch historians, and finally, via copies of my critique, to major libraries such as the British Library, the Cambridge University Library and tne NZ National Library. I have commented to Blackwells via that company's website. If the binding problem should turn out to be a general one, an embarrassing outcome could possibly eventuate. I hope not, but I remain concerned. Any large-scale complaint from purchasers could be hard to handle when it is a situation that has been well publicised.
All the issues with the RDS Group history are discussed in my critique that
is entitled :
"The Royal Dutch Shell Centenary, a Shellman's view of the 2007 history"
I could give hundreds of examples of errors but it is probably inappropriate to do so here. Many libraries, and especially those in universities, have bought copies of my critique of the New Zealand history because it was seen as an unprecedented example of a "history gone wrong", an example to be presented as a dire warning to students. I can safely say that this Shell Group history of 2007 has eclipsed the NZ disaster of 2004. The former was largely condemned by errors of facts and understanding. The latter has errors in far greater variety.
Availability
The critique "The Royal Dutch Shell centenary" is available from the
author, Michael Whitfield Foster, 30 Campbell Street, Karori, Wellington 6012,
at NZ$25 by post within New Zealand, in the form of a comb-bound A4 book.
It is also available on a CD as a PDF file for $9 by post within New
Zealand. It is also much the cheapest way of sending it overseas and it can be
airmailed anywhere in the world for NZ$12.
The book has ISBN 978-0-473-12905-7