The life of John Davison Rockefeller, Sr., was marked to an exceptional degree by silence, mystery, and evasion. Even though he presided over the largest busi ness and philanthropic enterprises of his day, he has remained an elusive fig ure. A master of disguises, he spent his life camouflaged behind multiple personae and shrouded beneath layers of mythology. Hence, he lingers in Our national psyche as a series of disconnected images, ranging from the rapacious creator of Standard Oil, brilliant but bloodless, to the wizened old codger dispensing dimes and canned speeches for newsreel cameras. It is often hard to piece together the varied images into a coherent picture.
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In 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 cariists--and an utter enigma.
Foreword
Prelude: Poison Tongue
1. The Flimflam Man
2. Fires of Revival
3. Bound to Be Rich
4. Baptism in Business
5. The Auction
6. The Poetry of the Age
7. Millionaires" Row
8. Conspirators
9. The New Monarch
10. Sphinx
11. The Holy Family
12. Insurrection in the Oil Fields
13. Seat of Empire
14. The Puppeteer
15. Widow"s Funeral
16. A Matter of Trust
17. Captains of Erudition
18. Nemesis
19. The Dauphin
20. The Standard Oil Crowd
21. The Enthusiast
22. Avenging Angel
23. Faith of Fools
24. The Millionaires" Special
25. The Codger
26. The World"s Richest Fugitive
27. Judgment Day
28. Benevolent Trust
29. Massacre
30. Introvert and Extrovert
31. Confessional
32. Dynastic Succession
33. Past, Present, Future
34. Heirs
35. See You in Heaven
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
