McCannon on Weinberg, _Taking on the Trust: The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller_

[Book Reviews in Economic and Business History]

Published by EH.NET (January 2009)

Steve Weinberg, _Taking on the Trust: The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and 
John D. Rockefeller_. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008. xv + 304 pp. $26 
(hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-393-04935-0.

Reviewed for EH.NET by Bryan C. McCannon, Department of Economics, Wake 
Forest University.


Steve Weinberg is a former executive director of Investigative Reporters 
and Editors (IRE) and a current member of the University of Missouri 
Journalism School. He engages in “a hybrid of biography and dramatic 
narrative” (p. xi) of Ida Minerva Tarbell. The author credits Tarbell 
with establishing the new form of journalism, known as muckraking, with 
her 1904 investigative book _The History of the Standard Oil Company_, 
which came out of a serial published in _McClure’s_ magazine. Weinberg 
credits Tarbell’s work with playing a significant role in his career 
since he claims to be a spokesman of muckraking.

The lives of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller, the founder of 
Standard Oil, were closely linked. Weinberg’s book presents the 
similarity by constructing a dual biography following the life of each, 
side-by-side, throughout to capture “their epic collision course” (p. 
xi). They share plenty of coincidences such as having a long life, 
losing a sibling, valuing education, and being strongly influenced by 
religion. It was Ida Tarbell’s book on Standard Oil that has brought her 
fame. The investigative piece shaped public opinion of Rockefeller, 
earning her not only an editorial position and a healthy public speaking 
career, but also an invitation by President Wilson to work on a 
commission on U.S. tariff policy. Lesser know are her biographies of 
Napoleon Bonaparte and Abraham Lincoln. On a recent trip to Lincoln’s 
Museum in Springfield, Illinois, I noticed that Tarbell’s biography was, 
in fact, on the short list of recommended Lincoln biographies.

Ida Tarbell was born in 1857 and grew up in Rouseville, Pennsylvania 
near Titusville, Pennsylvania.[1] Her father, Franklin, was an 
entrepreneur in the booming oil business of western Pennsylvania. 
Franklin Tarbell manufactured wooden oil barrels. Ida was a bright and 
energetic young woman growing up experiencing, firsthand, the oil 
industry. In 1876 she attended Allegheny College, which had only 
recently started admitting women. There she became a member of the 
Ossali Society, a women’s literary society, providing a start to her 
writing career. After a short stint as a schoolteacher, Ida moved back 
home to her family and participated in the Chautauquan Assembly. The 
Chautauquan Literary and Scientific Circle was an educational gathering 
started by Lewis Miller in 1874. Ida was recruited for a job at the 
magazine _The Chautauquan_ writing annotations of the readings of the 
assembly.

Tarbell moved to Paris to research a biography of Madame Roland. To earn 
an income she worked as a freelance writer publishing articles in 
American magazines on French culture. Her writing came to the attention 
of Samuel McClure, who persuaded her to come to New York City and write 
for his new magazine. It was at _McClure’s_ that Ida developed her 
investigative journalistic style and embarked on her exposition on 
Standard Oil.

The life and impact of John D. Rockefeller has been extensively written 
about. Biographies such as Ron Chernow’s _Titan: The Life of John D. 
Rockefeller, Sr._, Jules Abels’ _The Rockefeller Billions: The Story of 
the World’s Most Stupendous Fortune_, and Charles R. Morris’ _The 
Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. 
Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy_ are, in fact, frequently 
cited in the text. The author portrays a clean and concise life of 
Rockefeller, while not going into depth as other biographies have. It 
seems that Rockefeller’s life is only presented to the detail needed to 
better understand Tarbell’s life story. The book briefly mentions the 
technological advances, entrepreneurial ideas, scandals, and economic 
achievements of Rockefeller and Standard Oil. The emphasis, regarding 
Rockefeller, is on his personal characteristics and how they were 
beneficial for his rise as an entrepreneur and how they were detrimental 
for his public relations.

An interesting point of departure between Weinberg’s and Chernow’s 
biography is the presentation of how Ida Tarbell began her investigation 
into Standard Oil. The difference illustrates the striking contrast in 
how the two works present her. In Weinberg’s presentation it was Samuel 
McClure who wanted to capitalize on the progressive movement in the 
country by investigating a trust. Ida Tarbell recommended the 
investigation of the sugar industry, while others on the staff advised 
to re-open the investigation of Philip D. Armour and his beef trust, 
which had previously been written on by another staff journalist. As the 
debate unfolded Tarbell sought opinions from a variety of sources as to 
which trust the magazine should investigate and in staff meetings “it 
became clear to her colleagues that Rockefeller and his Standard Oil 
trust ‘had been a strong thread weaving itself into the patter’ of her 
life [and that she] uniquely could bring the requisite passion and 
skills to the project” (p. 206). The stated goal of Samuel McClure and 
Ida Tarbell was to give a “clear and succinct notion of the processes by 
which a particular industry passes from the control of the many to that 
of the few” (p. 207). Ron Chernow’s presentation is quite different in 
tone. He states that her father, as an independent in the oil industry 
battling against Standard Oil, bred “in his sensitive daughter a 
lifelong hatred of Standard Oil” (p. 436). He goes on to claim that the 
idea of writing about Standard Oil had been on her mind for many years, 
that although she “pretended to apply her scalpel to Standard Oil with 
surgical objectivity, she was never neutral” (p. 439), and that her 
father dying of stomach cancer at the time of her writing may have 
embittered her toward Rockefeller. Thus, while Chernow paints a negative 
picture of Tarbell and her intentions, Steve Weinberg’s presentation 
emphasizes “her passion to discover and disseminate the truth about 
political, economic, and social issues” (p. xiv).

The contrasts between the two authors are great. Chernow spends much of 
his chapter on Tarbell discussing her inappropriate use of information 
provided by Rockefeller’s angry brother Frank and the claimed, incorrect 
presentation of Rockefeller’s purchase of a small lubricating company 
owned by the widow of Fred Backus. In the index to Weinberg’s book there 
is not even a listing for Backus. Instead, this text presents in-depth 
information on the extent of her careful research and skill at 
presenting the workings of a trust to the general public.

I am immediately struck by the question of whether it matters to our 
understanding of market power and antitrust policy whether Ida Tarbell 
was a student of objective investigation who wrote on the strengths and 
flaws of John D. Rockefeller or whether she was the embittered daughter 
of a failed entrepreneur motivated to bring down the man that influenced 
her life. It is hard to say. She definitely influenced public opinion in 
her time and biographies of Rockefeller since then have been praised for 
resurrecting his image. Did her writing influence the enforcement of the 
Sherman Antitrust Act or the 1911 Supreme Court ruling that broke up 
Standard Oil? Is competition policy better (or worse) because of our 
understanding of Rockefeller? While I do not have the answers to these 
questions, Weinberg’s book, by presenting a different perspective, 
raises such questions for economic historians to consider.

_Taking on the Trust_ is best thought of as a complement to the 
literature on John D. Rockefeller. The value to economists of studying 
Standard Oil and Rockefeller, along with studying trusts in general, has 
been well-articulated (see, for example, Christopher Baylor’s (2001) 
review of Chernow’s biography). What Weinberg’s book does is provide us 
with an investigation of Ida Tarbell’s life and how her values and 
background lead to her muckraking. It is an especially valuable 
complement since it provides a rather complimentary depiction of 
Tarbell’s work and influence; balancing the more negative portrayals.

Finally, the book briefly delves into a number of issues and events of 
the times that should prove interesting to economic historians. Along 
with a presentation of the life of Samuel McClure, the author discusses 
political and social thought at the turn of the century (and Ida 
Tarbell’s thoughts on them), the progressive writers and thinkers of the 
time, and the early feminist movement. Additionally, Tarbell’s praise of 
the writings of Henry George is interesting. Finally, the effect of 
western land speculation and the financial crisis of 1857 on Ida’s 
parents is a noteworthy anecdote of an asset bubble (and bust).

Steve Weinberg’s _Taking on the Trust_ is a nice addition to the 
literature on John D. Rockefeller as it delves into the life of Ida 
Tarbell. While lacking in details regarding Standard Oil and its 
practices, it provides an interesting story of one of the early female 
investigative journalists.

Note:
1. Ida Tarbell was actually born in Hallow Hatch, PA while her father 
was away trying to start a new family farm in Iowa (until the financial 
crisis of 1857 froze his bank accounts and depreciated the value of the 
land). At the age of four he moved his family to Rouseville to be closer 
to Titusville and the oil boom. In 1870 the family moved to Titusville.

References:
Baylor, Christopher A., “Review of Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John 
D. Rockefeller, Sr.” EH.Net Economic History Services, Jul 11 2001. URL: 
http://eh.net/bookreviews/library/0373.

Chernow, Ron. 1998. _Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr._, 
Random House.


Bryan C. McCannon is an Assistant Professor of Economics and the Hough 
Family Fellow at Wake Forest University. His recent work includes an 
analysis on the use of sanctions that depend on the history of past 
violations of the law, “Differentiating between First and Repeat 
Offenses,” _Contemporary Economic Policy_, forthcoming. Additionally, he 
is currently working on an economic analysis of the Classical Athenian 
legal system.

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