Titan The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow

Description

History’s first billionaire, human at last. Ron Chernow’s Titan is the definitive biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. — the oil magnate who became history’s first billionaire and, in his later years, one of its greatest philanthropists. Drawing on unprecedented access to Rockefeller’s private papers and family archives, Chernow reconstructs the full arc: from a fatherless boy in upstate New York to the founder of Standard Oil, the trust that dominated the American petroleum industry and redefined modern capitalism.

Published in 1998, Titan moves far beyond the robber-baron caricature. Chernow explores the stern Baptist faith, the complicated marriage, the family tragedies, and the great paradox of a man who crushed competitors without mercy yet gave away more than half a billion dollars — founding the University of Chicago, Rockefeller University, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Vividly written and meticulously researched, this is business history as gripping as any novel — and a case study in power, wealth, and conscience. Readers of American history and narrative nonfiction: start here.

Ron Chernow’s Titan is the definitive biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. — the oil magnate who became history’s first billionaire and, in his later years, one of its greatest philanthropists. Drawing on unprecedented access to Rockefeller’s private papers and family archives, Chernow reconstructs the full arc of an American life: from a fatherless boy in upstate New York to the founder of Standard Oil, the trust that came to dominate the American petroleum industry and redefine modern capitalism.

Published in 1998, Titan goes far beyond the familiar caricature of the ruthless robber baron. Chernow explores Rockefeller’s stern Baptist faith, his complicated marriage, his family tragedies, and the paradox of a man who crushed competitors without mercy yet gave away more than half a billion dollars — founding the University of Chicago, Rockefeller University, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Vividly written and meticulously researched, this sweeping biography doubles as a portrait of the Gilded Age itself: its ambition, its excess, and its moral reckonings. Readers of business history, American history, and narrative nonfiction will find it as gripping as any novel — and as instructive as any case study in power, wealth, and conscience.