Hugo Chavez's diabolical rant in September at the United Nations might have resuscitated book sales of far-left theorist Noam Chomsky, but the Venezuelan tough guy will have to do something even more outrageous to rescue this disappointing biography by British academic Nikolas Kozloff.

Even for someone anxious to learn about Venezuela's charismatic caudillo, Kozloff's book makes for tedious reading. One-third biography, one-third history lesson, one-third radical graduate student's memoirs, the book meanders -- somewhat like a pretentious French avant-garde movie -- and contains very little for the reader to sink his teeth into.

But it's not a total waste. A scholar with considerable knowledge of Latin America's politics, Kozloff relates enough of Venezuela's history for us to understand some of the appeal of Chavez's anti-American populism.

Kozloff notes that, like many resource-dependent Third World states, Venezuela has followed a wild ride from instant wealth when oil prices are high and to a frightening tumble when they are low. And there is little reason to doubt his assertion that the old Venezuelan establishment -- often with American backing -- presided over a maldistribution of wealth that left perhaps 80 percent of the country's population in poverty.

Beyond that, Kozloff 's earnest, enthusiastic radicalism erodes his credibility. The book seethes with the almost paranoiac, reflexive anti- Americanism common to the European left.

The book starts with an account of the Rev. Pat Robertson's 2005 call for Chavez's assassination. Only a credulous observer would consider Robertson anything more than marginal to American foreign policy. In fact, Robertson today is rightly dismissed, even among religious conservatives, as a bombastic buffoon. But Kozloff seems to take him seriously.

Although sympathetic to Chavez's world view, the author does express some "ambivalent feelings" about the Venezuelan president's authoritarian streak. Still, Kozloff emerges as a fan, identifying Chavez as "a figure who could articulate the masses' opposition to elite policies."

Far more instructive, however, are those aspects of Chavezismo that Kozloff does not address. For example, he has nothing to say about the influence over the president exercised by the late Argentinean social thinker Norberto Ceresole. A strange blend of extreme right and extreme left, Ceresole mixed utopian socialism with outright anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

None of this has been widely covered outside the Jewish and conservative press, notably The Weekly Standard. Yet clearly Ceresole's ideas have had an impact. Last Christmas Chavez gave a speech railing against Israel and Jews, blaming "the descendents of the same ones that crucified Christ" for the death of Simon Bolivar and for taking "possession of all of the wealth of the world." Not surprisingly, by some estimates, as many as half the country's Jewish community has already fled, along with about one million of their fellow citizens.

Ceresole's influence also can be seen in Chavez's authoritarian streak, amply demonstrated in his earlier attempt to overthrow the elected Venezuelan government by force in 1992. The Argentinean thinker advocated that Chavez adopt a "post-democratic" political system. His 1999 book on Chavez was ominously titled Caudillo, Ejercito, Pueblo (Leader, Army, People). Chavez's subsequent press crackdowns and attacks on judicial autonomy now provide proof of Ceresole's influence.

Clearly, Chavez has more in common with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than simply oil money and hatred of the United States. Though nominally a Christian, Chavez may well be the most important booster of Islamic radicalism in the New World. He half-justifies the 9/11 attacks by suggesting the actions of America "brought the attacks upon itself." At the end of the day it is oil, which Chavez sees as a "geopolitical weapon," that differentiates the Venezuelan firebrand from your runof- the-mill Third World strongman. His power has been enhanced by rising energy prices, which provide Venezuela -- the fourth-largest oil exporter to the United States -- unprecedented global leverage with Europe, China, India, and other powerful economies.

Chavez is willing to use his oil weapon to influence American public opinion. After Katrina, for example, Venezuela launched a propaganda blitz, offering aid to hurricane victims. Before that, it had initiated a program, through its Citgo affiliate, to make friends in the United States by offering cheap heating oil to the poor in Northeastern cities. Chavez's moves, Kozloff suggests, "are sure to play well in the Inner City."

Sadly, this is true, at least for some Democrats who are impressed with Chavez's rhetoric and offers of cheap fuel for their constituents. Some of his most avid boosters, such as Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and New York Rep. Jose Serrano, represent what might be seen as the Ward Churchill wing of the Democratic Party, people who instinctively embrace anyone who considers George W. Bush "the devil."

But others in the pro-Chavez camp are more serious players: Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee; the Rev. Jesse Jackson; and two prominent Massachusetts politicians, Reps. William Delahunt and Ed Markey. The fact that they publicly vouch for Chavez strengthens the perception among voters that, no matter how disgusted they are with the venality of the Republican Party, they should be careful about trusting the levers of power to Democrats.

Yet herein lies an opportunity for Democrats. The root of the Chavez problem is America's oil dependency. Without petrodollars, Chavez would simply be an annoyance, dangerous mostly to his own people. It is clear that the Bush administration has failed to promote an intelligent energy policy, inadvertently leaving the country subject to the whims of our enemies. The Republicans have steadfastly refused to fund alternative energy systems adequately. In addition, as Vice President Dick Cheney once put it, they have disdained conservation as little more than a "personal virtue."

Clearly this calls for a vigorous response and bold policy initiatives, which are plentiful among policy experts. In Kozloff 's book, these issues are absent; yet they are the ones we should be thinking about. At least this book has the virtue of reminding us what serious problems Hugo Chavez -- and America's energy dependence -- really are.

Joel Kotkin is an Irvine Senior Fellow with the New America Foundation and author of The City: A Global History Modern Library). He is working on a project on North American energy for the Northern Great Plains Foundation.