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Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Paperback – March 30, 2004

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National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist

From the acclaimed, award-winning author of Alexander Hamilton: here is the essential, endlessly engrossing biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.—the Jekyll-and-Hyde of American capitalism. In the course of his nearly 98 years, Rockefeller was known as both a rapacious robber baron, whose Standard Oil Company rode roughshod over an industry, and a philanthropist who donated money lavishly to universities and medical centers. He was the terror of his competitors, the bogeyman of reformers, the delight of caricaturists—and an utter enigma.

Drawing on unprecedented access to Rockefeller’s private papers, Chernow reconstructs his subjects’ troubled origins (his father was a swindler and a bigamist) and his single-minded pursuit of wealth. But he also uncovers the profound religiosity that drove him “to give all I could”; his devotion to his father; and the wry sense of humor that made him the country’s most colorful codger. Titan is a magnificent biography—balanced, revelatory, elegantly written.

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Popular Highlights in this book

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“Success comes from keeping the ears open and the mouth closed” and “A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds.”
Highlighted by 2,244 Kindle readers
“Do not many of us who fail to achieve big things . . . fail because we lack concentration—the art of concentrating the mind on the thing to be done at the proper time and to the exclusion of everything else?”
Highlighted by 2,180 Kindle readers
Daring in design, cautious in execution—it was a formula he made his own throughout his career.
Highlighted by 2,126 Kindle readers
“It is very important to remember what other people tell you, not so much what you yourself already know.”
Highlighted by 1,946 Kindle readers
Taking for granted the growth of his empire, he hired talented people as found, not as needed.
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WARNING: California’s Proposition 65

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A biography that has many of the best attributes of a novel. . . . Wonderfully fluent and compelling.” —The New York Times

“A triumph of the art of biography. Unflaggingly interesting, it brings John D. Rockefeller Sr. to life through sustained narrative portraiture of the large-scale, nineteenth-century kind.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Important and impressive. . . . Reveals the man behind both the mask and the myth.” —The Wall Street Journal

“One of the great American biographies. . . . [Chernow] writes with rich impartiality. He turns the machinations of Standard Oil . . . into fascinating social history.” —Time

From the Back Cover

John D. Rockefeller, Sr.--history's first billionaire and the patriarch of America's most famous dynasty--is an icon whose true nature has eluded three generations of historians. Now Ron Chernow, the National Book Award-winning biographer of the Morgan and Warburg banking families, gives us a history of the mogul "etched with uncommon objectivity and literary grace . . . as detailed, balanced, and psychologically insightful a portrait of the tycoon as we may ever have" (Kirkus Reviews). Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller's exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book will indelibly alter our image of this most enigmatic capitalist.
Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world's richest man by creating America's most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
Rockefeller was likely the most controversial businessman in our nation's history. Critics charged that his empire was built on unscrupulous tactics: grand-scale collusion with the railroads, predatory pricing, industrial espionage, and wholesale bribery of political officials. The titan spent more than thirty years dodging investigations until Teddy Roosevelt and his trustbusters embarked on a marathon crusade to bring Standard Oil to bay.
While providing abundant new evidence of Rockefeller's misdeeds, Chernow discards the stereotype of the cold-blooded monster to sketch an unforgettablyhuman portrait of a quirky, eccentric original. A devout Baptist and temperance advocate, Rockefeller gave money more generously--his chosen philanthropies included the Rockefeller Foundation, the University of Chicago, and what is today Rockefeller University--than anyone before him. Titan presents a finely nuanced portrait of a fascinating, complex man, synthesizing his public and private lives and disclosing numerous family scandals, tragedies, and misfortunes that have never before come to light.
John D. Rockefeller's story captures a pivotal moment in American history, documenting the dramatic post-Civil War shift from small business to the rise of giant corporations that irrevocably transformed the nation. With cameos by Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst, Jay Gould, William Vanderbilt, Ida Tarbell, Andrew Carnegie, Carl Jung, J. Pierpont Morgan, William James, Henry Clay Frick, Mark Twain, and Will Rogers, Titan turns Rockefeller's life into a vivid tapestry of American society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is Ron Chernow's signal triumph that he narrates this monumental saga with all the sweep, drama, and insight that this giant subject deserves.

"From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Ron Chernow’s bestselling books include The House of Morgan, winner of the National Book Award; The Warburgs, which won the George S. Eccles Prize; The Death of the Banker; Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Washington: A Life, which received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography; and Alexander Hamilton, nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and adapted into the award-winning Broadway musical Hamilton. Chernow has served as president of PEN American Center and has received seven honorary doctoral degrees. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 1

The Flimflam Man

In the early 1900s, as Rockefeller vied with Andrew Carnegie for the title of the world's richest man, a spirited rivalry arose between France and Germany, with each claiming to be Rockefeller's ancestral land. Assorted genealogists stood ready, for a sizable fee, to manufacture a splendid royal lineage for the oilman. "I have no desire to trace myself back to the nobility," he said honestly. "I am satisfied with my good old American stock." The most ambitious search for Rockefeller's roots traced them back to a ninth-century French family, the Roquefeuilles, who supposedly inhabited a Languedoc château-a charming story that unfortunately has been refuted by recent findings. In contrast, the Rockefellers' German lineage has been clearly established in the Rhine valley dating back to at least the early 1600s.

Around 1723, Johann Peter Rockefeller, a miller, gathered up his wife and five children, set sail for Philadelphia, and settled on a farm in Somerville and then Amwell, New Jersey, where he evidently flourished and acquired large landholdings. More than a decade later, his cousin Diell Rockefeller left southwest Germany and moved to Germantown, New York. Diell's granddaughter Christina married her distant relative William, one of Johann's grandsons. (Never particularly sentimental about his European forebears, John D. Rockefeller did erect a monument to the patriarch, Johann Peter, at his burial site in Flemington, New Jersey.) The marriage of William and Christina produced a son named Godfrey Rockefeller, who was the grandfather of the oil titan and a most unlikely progenitor of the clan. In 1806, Godfrey married Lucy Avery in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, despite the grave qualms of her family.

Establishing a pattern that would be replicated by Rockefeller's own mother, Lucy had, in her family's disparaging view, married down. Her ancestors had emigrated from Devon, England, to Salem, Massachusetts, around 1630, forming part of the Puritan tide. As they became settled and gentrified, the versatile Averys spawned ministers, soldiers, civic leaders, explorers, and traders, not to mention a bold clutch of Indian fighters. During the American Revolution, eleven Averys perished gloriously in the battle of Groton. While the Rockefellers' "noble" roots required some poetic license and liberal embellishment, Lucy could justly claim descent from Edmund Ironside, the English king, who was crowned in 1016.

Godfrey Rockefeller was sadly mismatched with his enterprising wife. He had a stunted, impoverished look and a hangdog air of perpetual defeat. Taller than her husband, a fiery Baptist of commanding presence, Lucy was rawboned and confident, with a vigorous step and alert blue eyes. A former schoolteacher, she was better educated than Godfrey. Even John D., never given to invidious comments about relatives, tactfully conceded, "My grandmother was a brave woman. Her husband was not so brave as she." If Godfrey contributed the Rockefeller coloring-bluish gray eyes, light brown hair-Lucy introduced the rangy frame later notable among the men. Enjoying robust energy and buoyant health, Lucy had ten children, with the third, William Avery Rockefeller, born in Granger, New York, in 1810. While it is easy enough to date the birth of Rockefeller's father, teams of frazzled reporters would one day exhaust themselves trying to establish the date of his death.

As a farmer and businessman, Godfrey enjoyed checkered success, and his aborted business ventures exposed his family to an insecure, peripatetic life. They were forced to move to Granger and Ancram, New York, then to Great Barrington, before doubling back to Livingston, New York. John D. Rockefeller's upbringing would be fertile with cautionary figures of weak men gone astray. Godfrey must have been invoked frequently as a model to be avoided. By all accounts, Grandpa was a jovial, good-natured man but feckless and addicted to drink, producing in Lucy an everlasting hatred of liquor that she must have drummed into her grandson. Grandpa Godfrey was the first to establish in John D.'s mind an enduring equation between bonhomie and lax character, making the latter prefer the society of sober, tight-lipped men in full command of their emotions.

The Rockefeller records offer various scenarios of why Godfrey and Lucy packed their belongings into an overloaded Conestoga wagon and headed west between 1832 and 1834. By one account, the Rockefellers, along with several neighbors, were dispossessed of their land in a heated title dispute with some English investors. Another account has an unscrupulous businessman gulling Godfrey into swapping his farm for allegedly richer turf in Tioga County. (If this claim was in fact made, it proved a cruel hoax.) Some relatives later said that Michigan was Godfrey's real destination but that Lucy vetoed such a drastic relocation, preferring the New England culture of upstate New York to the wilds of Michigan.

Whatever the reason, the Rockefellers reenacted the primordial American rite of setting out in search of fresh opportunity. In the 1830s, many settlers from Massachusetts and Connecticut were swarming excitedly into wilderness areas of western New York, a migration that Alexis de Tocqueville described as "a game of chance" pursued for "the emotions it excites, as much as for the gain it procures." The construction of the Erie Canal in the 1820s had lured many settlers to the area. Godfrey and Lucy heaped up their worldly possessions in a canvas-topped prairie schooner, drawn by oxen, and headed toward the sparsely settled territory. For two weeks, they traveled along the dusty Albany-Catskill turnpike, creeping through forests as darkly forbidding as the setting of a Grimms' fairy tale. With much baggage and little passenger space, the Rockefellers had to walk for much of the journey, with Lucy and the children (except William, who did not accompany them) taking turns sitting in the wagon whenever they grew weary. As they finally reached their destination, Richford, New York, the last three and a half miles were especially arduous, and the oxen negotiated the stony, rutted path with difficulty. At the end, they had to lash their exhausted team up a nearly vertical hillside to possess their virgin sixty acres. As family legend has it, Godfrey got out, tramped to the property's peak, inspected the vista, and said mournfully, "This is as close as we shall ever get to Michigan." So, in a memorial to dashed hopes, the spot would forever bear the melancholy name of Michigan Hill.

Even today scarcely more than a crossroads, Richford was then a stagecoach stop in the wooded country southeast of Ithaca and northwest of Binghamton. The area's original inhabitants, the Iroquois, had been chased out after the American Revolution and replaced by revolutionary army veterans. Still an uncouth frontier when the Rockefellers arrived, this backwater had recently attained township status, its village square dating from 1821. Civilization had taken only a tenuous hold. The dense forests on all sides teemed with game-bear, deer, panther, wild turkey, and cottontail rabbit-and people carried flaring torches at night to frighten away the roaming packs of wolves.

By the time that John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839, Richford was acquiring the amenities of a small town. It had some nascent industries-sawmills, gristmills, and a whiskey distillery-plus a schoolhouse and a church. Most inhabitants scratched out a living from hardscrabble farming, yet these newcomers were hopeful and enterprising. Notwithstanding their frontier trappings, they had carried with them the frugal culture of Puritan New England, which John D. Rockefeller would come to exemplify.

The Rockfellers' steep property provided a sweeping panorama of a fertile valley. The vernal slopes were spattered with wildflowers, and chestnuts and berries abounded in the fall. Amid this sylvan beauty, the Rockfellers had to struggle with a spartan life. They occupied a small, plain house, twenty-two feet deep and sixteen feet across, fashioned with hand-hewn beams and timbers. The thin soil was so rocky that it required heroic exertions just to hack a clearing through the underbrush and across thickly forested slopes of pine, hemlock, oak, and maple.

As best we can gauge from a handful of surviving anecdotes, Lucy ably managed both family and farm and never shirked heavy toil. Assisted by a pair of steers, she laid an entire stone wall by herself and had the quick-witted cunning and cool resourcefulness that would reappear in her grandson. John D. delighted in telling how she pounced upon a grain thief in their dark barn one night. Unable to discern the intruder's face, she had the mental composure to snip a piece of fabric from his coat sleeve. When she later spotted the man's frayed coat, she confronted the flabbergasted thief with the missing swatch; having silently made her point, she never pressed charges. One last item about Lucy deserves mention: She had great interest in herbal medicines and home-brewed remedies prepared from a "physic bush" in the backyard. Many years later, her curious grandson sent specimens of this bush to a laboratory to see whether they possessed genuine medicinal value. Perhaps it was from Lucy that he inherited the fascination with medicine that ran through his life, right up to his creation of the world's preeminent medical-research institute.

By the time he was in his twenties, William Avery Rockefeller was already a sworn foe of conventional morality who had opted for a vagabond existence. Even as an adolescent, he disappeared on long trips in midwinter, providing no clues as to his whereabouts. Throughout his life, he expended considerable energy on tricks and schemes to avoid plain hard work. But he possessed such brash charm and rugged good looks-he was nearly six feet tall, with a broad chest, high forehead, and thick auburn beard covering a pugnacious jaw-that people were instantly beguiled by him. This appealing façade, at least for a while, lulled skeptics and disarmed critics. It wasn't surprising that this nomad did not accompany his parents on their westward trek to Richford but instead drifted into the area around 1835 in his own inimitable fashion. When he first appeared in a neighboring hamlet, he quickly impressed the locals with his unorthodox style. Posing as a deaf-mute peddler selling cheap novelties, he kept a small slate with the words "I am deaf and dumb" chalked across it tied by a string to his buttonhole. On this slate, he conversed with the locals and later boasted how he exploited this ruse to flush out all the town secrets. To win the confidence of strangers and soften them up for the hard sell, he toted along a kaleidoscope, inviting people to peer into it. During his long career as a confidence man, Big Bill always risked reprisals from people who might suddenly unmask his deceptions, and he narrowly escaped detection at the home of a Deacon Wells. The deacon and his daughter, a Mrs. Smith, pitied the poor peddler who knocked on their door one Saturday and sheltered him in their home that night. The next morning, when they invited him to church, Big Bill had to resort to some fancy footwork, for he always shied away from crowds where somebody might recognize him and expose his imposture. "Billy told [the deacon] in writing that he liked to go to church, but that his infirmity caused him to be stared at, so that he was abashed and would not go," recalled a townsman. "He really feared that he might be exposed by someone." Seven months later, after the deacon and Big Bill had both moved to Richford, Mrs. Smith spotted the erstwhile deaf-mute at a social gathering and marveled at his miraculous recovery of speech. "I see that you can talk better than when I saw you last," she said. Big Bill smiled, unfazed, his bravado intact. "Yes, I'm somewhat improved." When he arrived in Richford, the local citizens immediately got a taste of his fakery, for he wordlessly flashed a slate with the scribbled query, "Where is the house of Godfrey Rockefeller?"

Since he usually presented false claims about himself and his products, Bill worked a large territory to elude the law. He was roving more than thirty miles northwest of Richford, in the vicinity of Niles and Moravia, when he first met his future wife, Eliza Davison, at her father's farmhouse. With a flair for showmanship and self-promotion, he always wore brocaded vests or other brightly colored duds that must have dazzled a sheltered farm girl like Eliza. Like many itinerant vendors in rural places, he was a smooth-talking purveyor of dreams along with tawdry trinkets, and Eliza responded to this romantic wanderer. She was sufficiently taken in by his deaf-and-dumb humbug that she involuntarily exclaimed in his presence, "I'd marry that man if he were not deaf and dumb." Whatever tacit doubts she might have harbored when she discovered his deceit, she soon succumbed, as did other women, to his mesmerizing charm.

A prudent, straitlaced Baptist of Scotch-Irish descent, deeply attached to his daughter, John Davison must have sensed the world of trouble that awaited Eliza if she got mixed up with Big Bill Rockefeller, and he strongly discouraged the match. In later years, Eliza Rockefeller would seem to be a dried-up, withered spinster, but in late 1836 she was a slim, spirited young woman with flaming red hair and blue eyes. Pious and self-contained, she was the antithesis of Bill and probably found him so hypnotic for just that reason. Who knows what gloom hung around her doorstep that was dispelled by Bill's glib patter? Her mother had died when Eliza was only twelve-she had dropped dead after taking a pill dispensed by a traveling doctor-and Eliza was raised by her older sister, Mary Ann, leaving Eliza deprived of maternal counsel.

On February 18, 1837, despite the express opposition of John Davison, this most improbable couple-Bill was twenty-seven, Eliza twenty-four-were wed at the home of one of Eliza's friends. The marriage was a favorite gossip item among the Richford townspeople, who tended to spy guile on Bill's part. Compared to the Davisons, the Rockefellers were poor country folk, and it is very likely that Bill was entranced by reports of John Davison's modest wealth. As early as 1801, the frugal Davison had acquired 150 acres in Cayuga County. In John D.'s words, "My grandfather was a rich man-that is, for his time he was counted rich. In those days one who had his farm paid for and had a little money beside was counted rich. Four or five or six thousand was counted rich. My grandfather had perhaps three or four times that. He had money to lend."

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; 2nd edition (March 30, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 832 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1400077303
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400077304
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 1.7 x 9.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #11,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #19 in Company Business Profiles (Books)
- #46 in Rich & Famous Biographies
- #62 in Biographies of Business & Industrial Professionals

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Ron Chernow

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Ron Chernow won the National Book Award in 1990 for his first book, The House of Morgan, and his second book, The Warburgs, won the Eccles Prize as the Best Business Book of 1993. His biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Titan, was a national bestseller and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

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Customers find this biography to be a fascinating read with meticulous research and superb prose throughout. The book provides a deep exploration of Rockefeller's life and character, making it a great biography that captures his life wonderfully. They appreciate his philanthropic efforts and consider him a great businessman and philanthropist. While customers praise the writing style and depth of the book, some find it very long.

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Readability Depth Writing style Thought provoking Biography Insight into a man Philanthropy Length

222 customers mention "Readability"222 positive0 negative

Customers find the book fascinating and well worth their time, praising its tremendous storytelling.

"...I got so impressed by the usage of a vast vocabulary and weaving of complex bits of stories without losing continuity and context that I had to look..." Read more

"...His was a masterful life and this story was professionally researched and written...." Read more

"...Although Chernow's tales of Rockefeller's father make for exciting reading his other family members are rarely as interesting...." Read more

"...This book is extremely well-documented, very interesting and thought-provoking...." Read more

144 customers mention "Depth"144 positive0 negative

Customers praise the book's depth, noting its meticulous research and well-documented approach, with one customer describing it as "unprecedented in scope and detail."

"...Ron Chernow has done an excellent job in researching and portraying the peripheral events and circumstances which certainly influenced the man and..." Read more

"...4. I've found a friend, O such a friend! So kind and true and tender, So wise a counselor and guide, So mighty a defender!..." Read more

"...I can't wait till the spring to visit Kykuit! The research was top rate, and the book read effortlessly...." Read more

"Excellently researched biography by Ron Chernow will give you much insight into such an enigmatic figure, from his precarious childhood and troubled..." Read more

131 customers mention "Writing style"121 positive10 negative

Customers praise the writing style of the biography, describing it as superb and easy to read, with one customer noting it reads like a mystery novel.

"...I got so impressed by the usage of a vast vocabulary and weaving of complex bits of stories without losing continuity and context that I had to look..." Read more

"...The research was top rate, and the book read effortlessly. I had a hard time putting the book down...." Read more

"...The book expands the reader’s consciousness and is a fascinating and enjoyable read at the same time...." Read more

"...Extraordinary read. Greatly enjoyed it." Read more

70 customers mention "Thought provoking"64 positive6 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking and insightful, exploring Rockefeller's life in depth, with one customer noting it provides lessons from an exceptional figure.

"...Books should be informative, insightful and yet written in such an unbiased way that in the end the readers can debate different points and form..." Read more

"...: all sisters and brothers in-law, all sons and daughters in-law, all children, and all grandchildren...." Read more

"...This book is extremely well-documented, very interesting and thought-provoking...." Read more

"...biographies I have read in general and likely one of the best biographies on Rockefeller out there." Read more

60 customers mention "Biography"60 positive0 negative

Customers praise this biography for its fascinating portrait of Rockefeller's life, with one customer noting how it provides insight into this enigmatic figure.

"...The biography itself covers Rockefeller's life fairly completely...." Read more

"...Chernow is, as usual, an excellent stylist...." Read more

"...researched biography by Ron Chernow will give you much insight into such an enigmatic figure, from his precarious childhood and troubled..." Read more

"...What they all have in common is a personal picture of Americans who have had a fundamental impact on this nation for good or ill...." Read more

44 customers mention "Insight into a man"44 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's insight into Rockefeller, describing him as a fascinating and impressive figure, with one customer noting it provides an objective portrayal of this tycoon.

"...His personality is fascinating and Chernow does an exceptionally good job at bringing that out...." Read more

"...does a great job of keeping a healthy distance to provide an objective portrayal of this tycoon...." Read more

"...Amazing book and every American should read this book...." Read more

"...For me, I give JD the highest marks in genius, ingenuity and persistence of character witnessed in a time when there were no rules or comparable non-..." Read more

25 customers mention "Philanthropy"25 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate Rockefeller's philanthropic efforts, describing him as a great businessman and super philanthropist, with one customer noting his extraordinary foresight and another highlighting his high sense of social responsibility.

"...His (and his son’s) philanthropy is incredible, from founding the University of Chicago to Rockefeller University to the Rockefeller Foundation...." Read more

"...His philanthropy, compassion, and generosity on a personal level (while he and his family lived very simply) is matchless...." Read more

"...Fascinating life story of an unusual man who accumulated great wealth." Read more

"...Many of the topics of the day - antitrust, greed, philanthropy, inequality of wealth and opportunity - are played out in these pages...." Read more

38 customers mention "Length"18 positive20 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's length, with some finding it very long and a tome, while others mention that the story drags out for about 100 pages too long.

"...It is a compact read that is choke full with information...." Read more

"...will likely only appeal to a small minority of readers due to its extreme length and certain dry sections...." Read more

"...The book also spends a considerable amount of time on his only son, JDR, Jr, who received almost the entire fortune and who spends his entire life..." Read more

"...'s the story telling style of the author but the book for me is already long and sometimes tedious...." Read more

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A book that will nudge you to think
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2018
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This is my first ever experience with reading a Ron Chernow book.
I was looking to read a biography on a prominent American and stumbled upon recommendations about TITAN during my research over internet.
When I ordered this book, I did not know what to expect and how long I’d be interested in continue reading. I have many unfinished books (fiction as well as non fiction) because I lost interest or figured out what the theme/story line will be for the remainder of the book or on some occasions simply because the writing style was not for me.

But for me, this book is the best example of superior writing style. I got so impressed by the usage of a vast vocabulary and weaving of complex bits of stories without losing continuity and context that I had to look up other works by the author.
Next in line for me is Hemilton, which I have already bought.

There are many biographies on Rockefeller and those who are born and raised in the USA would have already known about this highly controversial figure, yet this book is a must read for all who wants to read an unbiased account of Rockefeller’s life and work.
Ron Chernow has done an excellent job in researching and portraying the peripheral events and circumstances which certainly influenced the man and contributed towards shaping him into who he was. Reading this book helps one understand the brilliant and complex mind of Rockefeller which was hermetically sealed away even from his own children.

It is a compact read that is choke full with information. This book not only portrays the unimaginable success story of rags to reaches but also helps the readers to glimpse at an era prior industrial revolution, how it all started and shaped America into who she is now - a global super power.

This book created a new found respect in me for this powerful self made man who quietly kept giving to the humanity. Yet there is the other side, who came across as a secretive person determined to not let his early days of business and birth of Standard Oil resurface in public mind, which makes me wonder how ethical was he in his business approach, at least in the beginning?
And these conflicting thoughts and debates in my mind were all introduced by the author. This is the tellatale sign of an extraordinary writer, in my humble opinion. Books should be informative, insightful and yet written in such an unbiased way that in the end the readers can debate different points and form their own opinion. And this book does exactly that.
The narrative is from a person who saw Rockefeller neither as a protagonist or antagonist, nor did his story telling revealed any bias that might have formed based on historical accounts (from specific people) of life and work of this Great man named John Davison Rockefeller.
How many can actually build something from scratch and then make it absolutely gigantic? That also after coming from a troubled unknown background and minimal education? How many can remain austere and simple in their approach to life even after being declared the richest man on this earth? How many can actually give silently?

Needless to say, this book has created a great impact in my mind and influenced me for better.
Read this book and decide for yourself.

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tom glenn, US Army retired
Titan - The Most Appropriate Summation of John D. Rockefeller, Sr July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2021
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First, the author. I had previously read: Washington, Hamilton and Grant. Each successively became my favorite until Titan. Perhaps it was more about the subject than the substance, but I still like Grant as being his best. Chernow makes a snarky comment about US Grant as President but Titan was written years before Grant. I have the most profound respect and admiration for Chernow and this is clearly a 5-star read!
Second, I read the Kindle version. Since I had eye surgery, I had to use 1.5 readers but had no issues.
Lastly, John D. Rockefeller, Sr (JDR) was a unique American! He lived (1839 -1937) in a turbulent time of our history. He avoided the American Civil War by claiming he had to support his mother and sibling as his father had abandoned the family. He was born in New York, was an abolitionist and an Evangelical Baptist. His advanced education was a 10-week course in bookkeeping.
When the Civil War ended, JDR saw an opportunity in the oil business (the commercial production of kerosene). He perceived that free competition only created chaos with both the supply and price. His Standard Oil Company, initially started in Cleveland, Ohio eliminated all the competition and established a monopoly that ultimately extended worldwide. The book suggests that JDR sold a quality product at a fair price. The book does not address the issue of income tax and whether the personal income tax levied by Lincoln was assessed against business. At any rate, JDR ultimately became the wealthiest man in the world ($418B equivalent in 1913) and will probably maintain that status for ever. One by product of kerosene was gasoline. At the time there was no use for it and in the absence of an EPA it was wasted on land and in the waterways. JDR’s Standard Oil profited when gasoline powered the automobile industry. Finally, the government busted the Standard Oil trust, creating 34 separate business entities. Since JDR had a 25% interest in Standard Oil, as punishment, he was awarded a 25% interest in each of the 34 businesses. The oil business was basically recession/depression proof and benefitted from WWI during JDR’s lifetime. He died at 99.
There is no doubt that JDR was a philanthropist. Early on he supported his church in Cleveland. He also gave funds to Spellman College and established the University of Chicago. Later, he supported medical issues and facilities. Many were skeptical of his motives but was besieged for help with this, that and the other projects. I believe that JDR’s, Sr greatest legacy was his son, JDR, Jr. He was tasked to administer his father philanthropic efforts. This became his full-time job. Among a host of other efforts, JDR, Jr built the Rockefellers Center in New York City and restored colonial Williamsburg. When he did get involved in the business operations, he tried to influence a labor dispute that ultimately ended in violence and death (the Ludlow Massacre).
His was a masterful life and this story was professionally researched and written. There are probably hundreds of descendants of JDR, Sr whose inheritance made them self-sustaining from day one. Many others have involved themselves in business and politics and helped make our society better.

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Arnoldicus
Winter stof
Reviewed in the Netherlands on November 11, 2024
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Ga ik dan lezen

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Jesús Talamantes
Reviewed in Mexico on October 27, 2016
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Existen muy pocas biografías tan bien documentadas como esta.

Escogí este libro por conocer la forma de pensar de quien fuera el más grande empresario de sus tiempos y, que la a fecha, han perdurado sus empresas, renombre y prácticas.

Recomendado para emprendedores

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Gcrikey
huge, full account of the richest man of all time...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2011
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don't be put off by the size of the book - it's huge. saying that it is thoroughly well researched and a great insight into the life story of the richest man the world has ever seen. i give this book 5 stars because it's written really well and i found that i couldn't put it down. if you are interested into the life story of rockefeller this is possibly the best book on the subject...

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joão Roberto
Excellent
Reviewed in Brazil on February 5, 2021
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All about the life of this tycoon.

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fabio
Consigliato ad appassionati del personaggio
Reviewed in Italy on April 4, 2024
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Libro consigliato ad interessati alla storia della famiglia data la lunghezza. Molto bello per come è scritto e molto interessante anche per vedere l'america degli ultimi anni del 1800 e primi del 1900 in un'ottica non faziosa, dato che la storia è concentrata sul personaggio e non sugli avvenimenti di quegli anni, e le analogie con i giorni nostri.

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Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Paperback – March 30, 2004

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Fascinating, well-balanced and it will make you want to reevaluate your own life.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A book that will nudge you to think

5.0 out of 5 stars Titan - The Most Appropriate Summation of John D. Rockefeller, Sr July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars Winter stof

5.0 out of 5 stars Jesús Talamantes

5.0 out of 5 stars huge, full account of the richest man of all time...

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent

5.0 out of 5 stars Consigliato ad appassionati del personaggio

A book that will nudge you to think

Titan - The Most Appropriate Summation of John D. Rockefeller, Sr July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937

Winter stof

Jesús Talamantes

huge, full account of the richest man of all time...

Excellent

Consigliato ad appassionati del personaggio