What impact did Ida Tarbell author of A History of Standard Oil have on John D Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is widely considered the wealthiest American of all time, and the richest person in modern history.
What impact did Ida Tarbell have on Rockefeller?
Ida Tarbell helped pioneer investigative journalism when she wrote a series of magazine articles about John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Trust. She and other jour- nalists, who were called “muckrakers,” aided Progressive Movement reform efforts.
What was the impact of The History of the Standard Oil Company?
The History of the Standard Oil Company is credited with hastening the breakup of Standard Oil, which came about in 1911, when the Supreme Court of the United States found the company to be violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Who is Ida Tarbell and what was the impact of her work?
She was one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and pioneered investigative journalism. Born in Pennsylvania at the onset of the oil boom, Tarbell is best known for her 1904 book The History of the Standard Oil Company.
What did Ida Tarbell wrote about Rockefeller?
Ida Tarbell concluded her series with a two-part character study of Rockefeller, where she described him as a “living mummy,” adding, “our national life is on every side distinctly poorer, uglier, meaner, for the kind of influence he exercises.” Public fury over the exposé is credited with the eventual breakup of ...
What did Ida Tarbell's book The History of the Standard Oil Company do?
Tarbell's study of Standard Oil excoriated Rockefeller and his company and helped spur new legislation and litigation to regulate interstate commerce and counter monopoly.
What did Ida Tarbell do for Standard Oil?
Her work was a sensation and the installments became a two-volume book entitled, The History of the Standard Oil Company, published in 1904. Tarbell meticulously documented the aggressive techniques Standard Oil employed to outmaneuver and, where necessary, roll over whoever got in its way.
What happened to Rockefeller Standard Oil Company?
Standard Oil Company and Trust does not still exist. It was dissolved in 1911. However, some companies that were part of the trust persisted and, over time, merged with others and became part of such well-known companies as Exxon Mobil Corporation, BP PLC, and Chevron Corporation.
What was Ida Tarbell biggest accomplishments?
In her most famous work, The History of the Standard Oil Company (which oil historian Daniel Yergin called the “most important business book ever written”), Miss Tarbell revealed, after years of painstaking research, the illegal means used by John D. Rockefeller to monopolize the early oil industry.
What was Ida Tarbell trying to change?
The McClure's magazine journalist was an investigative reporting pioneer; Tarbell exposed unfair practices of the Standard Oil Company, leading to a U.S. Supreme Court decision to break its monopoly.
What was the significance of the history of Standard Oil?
The History of the Standard Oil Company, originally a serial that ran in McClure's, is one of the most thorough accounts of the rise of a business monopoly and its use of unfair practices; her reporting contributed to the subsequent breakup of Standard Oil, which was found to be in violation of the Sherman Antitrust ...
Why was Ida Tarbell important to American history?
As the most famous woman journalist of her time, Tarbell founded the American Magazine in 1906. She authored biographies of several important businessmen and wrote a series of articles about an extremely controversial issue of her day, the tariff imposed on goods imported from foreign countries.
How did the Standard Oil Company affect the economy?
Standard Oil played a crucial role in the growth of the U.S economy due to its strong rooting in areas such as the railroads, other industries, as well as the government and, although it is criticized for a multitude of questionable business activities, Standard Oil did indeed benefit the U.S Economy in a number of ...
Why was the Standard Oil Company important?
Standard Oil gained a monopoly in the oil industry by buying rival refineries and developing companies for distributing and marketing its products around the globe. In 1882, these various companies were combined into the Standard Oil Trust, which would control some 90 percent of the nation's refineries and pipelines.
How did the Standard Oil Company affect the economy?
Standard Oil played a crucial role in the growth of the U.S economy due to its strong rooting in areas such as the railroads, other industries, as well as the government and, although it is criticized for a multitude of questionable business activities, Standard Oil did indeed benefit the U.S Economy in a number of ...
How did lowering prices help Standard Oil Company attract new customers quizlet?
How did lowering prices help Standard Oil Company attract new customers? Standard Oil Company had more money than its competitors. Therefore, they were able to survive on less income. Standard Oil could afford to cut their prices.
What was Standard Oil broken up into?
In 1911, following the Supreme Court ruling, Standard Oil was broken into seven successor companies; Standard Oil of New Jersey, Standard Oil of New York, Standard Oil of California, Standard Oil of Indiana, Standard Oil of Kentucky, The Standard Oil Company (Ohio), and The Ohio Oil Company.
What did Tarbell's study of Standard Oil do?
Tarbell’s study of Standard Oil excoriated Rockefeller and his company and helped spur new legislation and litigation to regulate interstate commerce and counter monopoly. In 1911, the United States Supreme Court broke up the Standard Oil Trust into more than thirty different independent companies. In this excerpt from Tarbell’s book, how does she ...
When was the history of the Standard Oil Company published?
Tarbell’s The History of the Standard Oil Company was first serialized in McClure’s Magazine starting in 1902 and then published as a best-selling book in 1904. Tarbell grew up around the Pennsylvania oil industry, where her father suffered from, and protested, John D. Rockefeller’s business practices.
What was the first law passed by Ida Tarbell?
The rise of corporate trusts and monopolies in the Progressive Era spurred Congress to legislate regulations on business practices. The first such law, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 , met its greatest test in a case against the Standard Oil Company. Journalist Ida M. Tarbell brought ...
What act strengthened antitrust laws?
Congress strengthened antitrust laws with the Federal Trade Commission Act and Clayton Antitrust Act. We, the people of the United States, and nobody else, must cure whatever is wrong in the industrial situation, typified by this narrative of the growth of the Standard Oil Company.
What was the purpose of the S. 1 Act?
S. 1, An Act to protect trade and commerce… . In the late nineteenth century, corporate monopolies and trusts consolidated enormous wealth and power into the hands of a few individuals. Senator…. “The King of the Combinations (John D.….
Who was the largest shareholder of the Standard Oil Company?
By 1900 John D. Rockefeller, founder and largest shareholder of the Standard Oil Company, controlled more than 90 percent of U.S. oil production,…. Ida M. Tarbell, photograph by J. E. Purdy &…. Journalist Ida M. Tarbell witnessed John D. Rockefeller ’s tactics in the 1870s, when the Standard Oil Company forced her father and other….
Who wrote the history of the standard oil company?
The History of the Standard Oil Company, by Ida M… Ida M. Tarbell’ s series for McClure’s was reissued in two volumes titled The History of the Standard Oil Company. Tarbell used…
Answer
Ida Tarbell was an American professor, writer and journalist, considered one of the main "muckrakers" of the Progressive Era of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and a pioneer of investigative journalism.
New questions in History
How did Enlightenment philosophers influence the Founding Fathers of American government? A. They provided the religious basis for representative demo …
What was Ida Tarbell's book about?
Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company that had destroyed her father’s oil business, as well as many other small oil related companies in Pennsylvania’s oil region in the 1870s. Tarbell’s work entitled “The History of The Standard Oil Company ” was originally published as a series in McClure’s Magazine and later in book form in 1904. It would become a notable example of investigative journalism, know during the Gilded Age as muckraking, that would lead to the Progressive Era in America, and would exposed the shady business practices, most notably the monopoly, of many of the county’s captains of industry.
Who was Ida Tarbell's father?
The family grew prosperous, and Ida was able to attend Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, in 1880. John D. Rockefeller.
Who was the most influential muckraker of the Gilded Age?
Tarbell was one of the most influential muckrakers of the Gilded Age, even though she did not care for the association with the term as she did not consider herself a writer. Her interviews with Standard Oil officials Henry Rogers, arranged by his friend Mark Twain, and Rockefeller’s partner Henry Flagler gave her a great deal of information on Standard Oil’s business practices. It seems the two felt Tarbell was writing a flattering article about the company.
Who was the oil company that was involved in the Cleveland Massacre?
In 1871, the Cleveland Massacre saw many oil producers in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, including Frank Tarbell, face the choice of sell their companies to the young John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil or try to compete and face financial ruin. Thirty years later, Ida Tarbell would write the articles and book that would expose Rockefeller’s ...
Who wrote the book that exposed Rockefeller's practices?
Thirty years later, Ida Tarbell would write the articles and book that would expose Rockefeller’s practices, but they not totally bring down Standard Oil. In 1911, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the company broken up into so-called baby Standards.
When was the history of the Standard Oil Company published?
Tarbell’s work entitled “The History of The Standard Oil Company” was originally published as a series in McClure’s Magazine and later in book form in 1904.
Who was the head of Standard Oil?
John D. Rockefeller, the head of The Standard Oil Company based in Cleveland, Ohio, had already begun to build a monopoly over the oil industry buy buying out smaller competitors and forcing many out of business as Standard Oil grew. In 1871, the Cleveland Massacre saw many oil producers in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, including Frank Tarbell, face the choice of sell their companies to the young John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil or try to compete and face financial ruin. Thirty years later, Ida Tarbell would write the articles and book that would expose Rockefeller’s practices, but they not totally bring down Standard Oil. In 1911, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered the company broken up into so-called baby Standards. Today, the remnants of the once mighty Standard Oil are still visible in the form of Chevron and ExxonMobile.
What was the result of Tarbell's work?
The largest result of Tarbell’s work was a Supreme Court decision in 1911 that found Standard Oil in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, finding that Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly ordering the business to split into 34 separate companies. Following publication of her book, Tarbell continued to write and lecture.
What is Tarbell known for?
Tarbell is best known for taking on Standard Oil. A writer, her most famous work was her expose of of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company. Her work was a sensation, finally published in a two-volume book titled The History of the Standard Oil Company, published in 1904.
Who is Ida Tarbell?
About Ida Tarbell. Tarbell is named after the pioneering investigative journalist and lecturer Ida Minerva Tarbell. Born in Pennsylvania in 1857, Tarbell was known as one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tarbell is best known for taking on Standard Oil.
Ida Tarbell
She was born on her grandfather’s farm in Hatch Hollow, Pa., on Nov. 5, 1857. Her parents were Franklin S. Tarbell, a carpenter and a teacher, and Esther Ann McCullough Tarbell, also a teacher.
The South Improvement Company
For 12 years, the Oil Creek Valley had yielded 33 million barrels of oil. An industry had grown up producing, transporting, refining, marketing, exporting and selling byproducts. The entrepreneurs of northwest Pennsylvania believed they had a splendid future, she wrote.
Wrong
News leaked about the South Improvement Company scheme in Oil Creek Valley. Ida Tarbell, 14 at the time, witnessed the backlash among the local oil refiners and producers. “As soon as the Oil Region learned of it a wonderful row followed,” she wrote.
Cleveland Massacre
On April 2, 1872, the State of Pennsylvania revoked the South Improvement Company’s charter. But it didn’t matter. John D. Rockefeller had moved onto a predatory new scheme called the Cleveland Massacre. In six weeks in February and March, he bought up 22 of his 26 competitors in hostile takeovers.
Lessons Learned
Rockefeller then marched out of Cleveland and did the same thing with the railroads in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and beyond, wrote his biographer, Ron Chernow. He had “figured out every conceivable way to restrain trade, rig markets and suppress competition,” he wrote.
Investigating Standard Oil
ONE of the busiest corners of the globe at the opening of the year 1872 was a strip of Northwestern Pennsylvania, not over fifty miles long, known the world over as the Oil Regions.
Henry Rogers
Tarbell’s friend Mark Twain had connected her with Rogers, then the acting head of Standard Oil.