Titan (Magill Book Reviews)

Ron Chernow treats his subject in an impartial manner, describing the seamier side of John D. Rockefeller’s business practices as well as his enormous philanthropies in TITAN: THE LIFE OF JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, SR. He argues that there was no contradiction between the two activities, that the religion Rockefeller learned in his youth taught him to earn as much as he could and give as much as could and thus validated both his business misdeeds and his charitable instincts. Chernow notes that Rockefeller, the greatest capitalist of his day, did not believe in free markets or competition, and he describes the fearsome methods Rockefeller used to seize control of nearly ninety percent of the oil refining industry in the United States. For Chernow, Rockefeller’s career demonstrates that the unfettered play of free markets can result in the destruction of competition and thus raises the question of the role that government intervention should play in ensuring the full benefits of competition. The successful Standard Oil monopoly generated enormous profits; Chernow estimates that Rockefeller’s untaxed income of $58 million in 1902 was the equivalent of one billion in 1996 dollars.

Rockefeller had begun to donate to his church and to charity with the first money he earned; his wealth now permitted giving on an unprecedented scale. Chernow views the $530 million he donated during his lifetime as simply a continuation of a pattern he had begun at the age of sixteen. By his death at the age of ninety- eight he was remembered more as a benevolent philanthropist than as a ruthless businessman.

Sources for Further Study

Columbia Journalism Review. XXXVII, July, 1998, p. 63.

Computerworld. XXXII, August 3, 1998, p. 36.

The Economist. CCCXLVII, April 18, 1998, p. S11.

Fortune. CXXXVII, June 22, 1998, p. 164.

Los Angeles Times Book Review. May 31, 1998, p. 12.

The New York Times Book Review. CIII, May 17, 1998, p. 10.

The New Yorker. LXXIV, May 11, 1998, p. 98.

Publishers Weekly. CCXLV, February 16, 1998, p. 191.

Time. CLI, June 15, 1998, p. 83.

The Washington Post Book World. XXVIII, June 7, 1998, p. 1.