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Titan
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. | Ron Chernow
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist"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 ReviewIn this endlessly engrossing book, National Book Award-winning biographer Ron Chernow devotes his penetrating powers of scholarship and insight to the Jekyll and Hyde of American capitalism. In the course of his nearly 98 years, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., 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 subject's 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 family; and the wry sense of humor that made him the country's most colorful codger. Titan is a magnificent biography --balanced, revelatory, and elegantly written."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."--TimeFrom the Trade Paperback edition.
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Sparkerdude
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A Chernow tome. This biography isn‘t imaginative but it lays out an account, possibly exhaustive, of the U.S.‘s one time richest person. It explores John D Sr.‘s roots, including the roles of his bigamist peripatetic father and his stolidly Baptist mother; his gift for accounting and insistence on deriving value in every transaction; his conquering of the world‘s refined oil market; through to his early retirement and revolution in philanthropy.

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aroc
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Thank you Ocean County Library for shaming me out of book buying!

UwannaPublishme Wow! 😆 4y
26 likes1 comment
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Amiable
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I love that our library‘s annual book sale allows me to indulge my passion for quirky nonfiction at a next-to-nothing price!
#Bookhaul

Cinfhen Man in the Rockefeller Suit was bonkers 5y
Leftcoastzen Great finds! 5y
Crazeedi Nice purchases!! 5y
LeahBergen America‘s Women was good. 👍🏻 5y
75 likes4 comments
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Oblomov26
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Well Rockefeller was a mixed up guy. A lifelong baptist and devoted Christian, a skinflint who made his fortune by being a cartel operator and would be monopolist who drove competitors into bankruptcy by price manipulation, yet who in later life gave away the majority of his capital to charities. But what is even stranger is that Rockefeller seemed to never recognize the dissonance in his life holding both morality and immorality at the same time.

Dogearedcopy IIRC, That dissonance did not exist for him! There was a sort of "Prosperity Gospel" that held God wanted you to be rich, would reward with earthly riches those who lived Christian lives (as dictated by those times); but yes, charitable/public works were expected at one point (e.g. Carnegie = libraries and The National Gallery, etc.)... 7y
Dogearedcopy Fun Fact: My husband's great grandfather is mentioned in that book (George Williams Gardner); and a few years ago my husband (Grover Gardner) got to narrate the unabridged audiobook edition! 🙂 7y
TrishB @Dogearedcopy that's cool 👍 7y
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GoneFishing

Rockefeller equated silence with strength: Weak men had loose tongues and blabbed to reporters, while prudent businessmen kept their own counsel.

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