The Investor's Shelf — one person

John D. Rockefeller

BiographiesIndustrialists and empire builders

Founder of Standard Oil, 1870; the wealthiest American in history and the template for the modern trust.

8 biographies about them

Biographies about them 8

A literature with two poles: Tarbell's contemporaneous prosecution and Chernow's modern reappraisal.

The History of the Standard Oil Company
The History of the Standard Oil Company
Ida M. Tarbell · 1904 · The muckraking investigation that helped break the trust.
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Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
Ron Chernow · 1998 · The definitive modern biography.
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God's Gold
God's Gold
John T. Flynn · 1932 · The hostile Depression-era life that Nevins was commissioned to answer.
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Pioneering in Big Business, 1882-1911
Pioneering in Big Business, 1882-1911
Ralph W. Hidy, Muriel E. Hidy · 1955 · The scholarly corporate history of Standard Oil, written from company records.
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Study in Power: John D. Rockefeller, Industr
Study in Power: John D. Rockefeller, Industrialist and Philanthropist
Allan Nevins · 1940 · Archive-based rehabilitation; sympathetic and dated.
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The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty
Peter Collier, David Horowitz · 1976 · Family across four generations rather than the founder alone.
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Rockefeller Medicine Men
Rockefeller Medicine Men
E. Richard Brown · 1979 · How the philanthropy reshaped American medicine; the money after the oil.
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The Rockefeller Century
The Rockefeller Century
John Ensor Harr, Peter J. Johnson · 1988 · Family-archive history of the fortune across three generations.
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