This important revisionist account of the man and the myth is about as good as we are likely to get. For here, finally, is an intelligent and insightful account of the most important industrialist of his time, of his personal and family life, his religious beliefs, his massive philanthropy, and the company he created. Rockefeller.Ĭhernow’s early hunch was that the Rockefeller legend was “exhausted” and that he should skip the project. That a 774-page book about a businessman born in 1839 can be a wonderful page-turner in the late 1990s says a lot about Chernow’s literary talents-and about the object of his attention, John D. Chernow must surely be one of the few historians who can really write. He was indeed “the feller,” as this scintillating retelling of his life and times by Ron Chernow aptly demonstrates. Rockefeller, president of Standard Oil, age 57, in bicycle suit and goggles, racing around the University of Chicago campus in 1897, harried administrators in tow, with students on the sidewalk chanting: “Rah, Rah, Rah, Rockefeller, he’s the feller.” Priceless. Armentano, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Hartford, is the author of Antitrust and Monopoly: Anatomy of a Policy Failure.įor me, this is the image that sticks: John D.
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