Titan: The Life of John D Rockefeller, Sr
Titan: The Life of John D Rockefeller, Sr by Ron Chernow John D Rockefeller's life was story of two halves connected by one thread: his religious beliefs. In the first half, brought up by his strong willed mother in absence of his bigamist gallivanting father, drilled in the values of thrift, self-reliance, hard work, and unflagging enterprise of his Baptist faith. His intelligence and ambition coincided with industrial blossoming of a continent sized country. He picked up one strand of the budding oil industry, started the age of kerosene, and by the time he exited, had brought in the gasoline age of automobiles. It was this phase of his life which demonstrated his nerves of steel in crushing competition through means fair and foul and created a company which became a byword of monopoly. His creation, Standard Oil controlled over 85% of refining, 90% of retail oil, and 30% of crude oil market for decades. The fact that he accomplished all this in an era of unfettered competition