Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (2004) by Ron Chernow

Succinctly put, I loved this book. Ron Chernow’s “Titan” is more than a great business biography; it is one of the best biographies I’ve ever read. Although Standard Oil and the rise of big business in America clearly play a central role, this book is first and foremost about John D. Rockefeller: his convictions, his character, his relationship with family, friends and colleagues.

And what an interesting man he was. To put it mildly, Rockefeller was a contradiction in terms. On the one hand, he was a sincerely pious man, deeply committed to the Baptist church and a paragon of personal morality and virtue. Yet, on the other hand, he was as ruthless – and successful – a corporate executive as has ever been produced in American history, more than willing to personally ruin competitors with bankruptcy to further his personal aims. Chernow makes this contradiction the focal point of his biography, and succeeds brilliantly in capturing and analyzing how Rockefeller balanced his devout Christianity with his cutthroat business practices. He argues that Rockefeller was able to do this by ascribing his business success to the will of God, which later fueled his famous works of philanthropy in the early the 20th century.

After reading “Titan,” one can’t help but wonder if Rockefeller did, in fact, take advantage of some sort of divine intervention at various stages of his career. For instance, when the northwest Pennsylvania oil fields began to show signs of exhaustion, threatening the future of the domestic oil business, new deposits were discovered in Ohio that favored Rockefeller and his empire. And just as electricity began to show signs of popular adoption, threatening to ruin the kerosene illuminant market that Standard Oil had dominated, the automobile emerged on the scene, which used the theretofore noxious byproduct of kerosene production, gasoline, to operate and expanded the oil business beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

At each step of the way, from the early days as an inconspicuous refinery in Cleveland to the global leviathan battling government intervention, public animosity, and foreign competition, Rockefeller skillfully guided the corporation with the foresight and tenacity of a great statesman. Chernow brings his story to life with such vitality and honesty that both Rockefeller and his nemesis, Ida Tarbell, would likely endorse it.