Book Description

"Muckrakers" was the name that Theodore Roosevelt gave journalists of the early part of the 20th century who exposed abuses in American business and government. Ida Tarbell, one of the original muckrakers, was able to help shut down the Standard Oil Company monopoly that had hampered her father's efforts in the oil industry in Pennsylvania. Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller, irked by her stinging expose, dubbed her "Miss Tarbarrel." The History of the Standard Oil Company is listed number five among the top 100 works of twentieth-century American journalism by the New York Times in 1999. This muckraking classic, which eventually led to effective regulation of the Standard Oil Company, was the inaugural work for crusading journalists whose mission was to expose corruption in politics and the abuses of big business during the early twentieth century. The history combined descriptions of John D. Rockefeller's business practices with his personal characteristics, creating an image of a cunning and ruthless person--a picture that not even decades of Rockefeller philanthropy were able to dispel.