Ida Tarbell, in full Ida Minerva Tarbell, (born November 5, 1857, Erie county, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died January 6, 1944, Bridgeport, Connecticut), American journalist, lecturer, and chronicler of American industry best known for her
classic The History of the Standard Oil Company (1904)
.
What did Ida Tarbell discover?
She was the only woman in her graduating class at Allegheny College in 1880. The McClure’s magazine journalist was an investigative reporting pioneer; Tarbell exposed
unfair practices of the Standard Oil Company
, leading to a U.S. Supreme Court decision to break its monopoly.
Why is Ida Tarbell important?
As the most famous woman journalist of her time, Tarbell founded the American Magazine in 1906. … She
authored biographies of several important businessmen
and wrote a series of articles about an extremely controversial issue of her day, the tariff imposed on goods imported from foreign countries.
Who was Ida Tarbell what was she famous for?
She was one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and pioneered investigative journalism. Born in Pennsylvania at the onset of the oil boom, Tarbell is best known for
her 1904 book The History of the Standard Oil Company
.
Why did Ida Tarbell expose Standard Oil?
Tarbell actually objected to the term, for she felt it belittled work she believed to be of historical importance. One result largely attributable to Tarbell’s work was a Supreme Court decision in 1911 that found Standard Oil
in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act
.
Who broke up Standard Oil?
Ida Tarbell concluded her series with a two-part character study of Rockefeller, where she described him as a “living mummy,” adding, “our national life is on every side distinctly poorer, uglier, meaner, for the kind of influence he exercises.”
Public fury over the exposé
is credited with the eventual breakup of …
How was Rockefeller ruined?
“I sought for the reason and
found that the railroads were in league with the Standard Oil concern
at every point, giving it discriminating rates and privileges of all kinds as against myself and all outside competitors.” —George Rice, “How I Was Ruined by Rockefeller,” New York World, October 16, 1898.
What a factory can teach a housewife summary?
When one set of people see that another set of people are taking from them that which they very much want to have, the intelligent procedure is to find the
reasons behind the shift
. The factory has no way of compelling girls and women to come to it. …
Who was the muckraker who took on the powerful Standard Oil monopoly?
Ida Tarbell
died in Connecticut in 1944 at the age of 86 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Titusville. She will be remembered as the muckraker who took on John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller, despite her efforts, remained one of the richest men in the world until his death in 1937.
What did Lincoln Steffens expose?
He launched a series of articles in McClure’s, called “Tweed Days in St. Louis”, that would later be published together in a book titled The Shame of the Cities. He is remembered for investigating corruption in municipal government in American cities and for his leftist values.
Why was Standard Oil bad?
In the words of antitrust scholar Dominic Armentano, The popular explanation of this case is that Standard Oil monopolized the oil industry,
destroyed rivals through the use of predatory price-cutting, raised prices to consumers and was punished by the Supreme Court
for these proven transgressions.
What did Stannard Baker expose?
In 1908 after the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot got him involved, Baker published the book Following the Color Line: An Account of Negro Citizenship in the American Democracy, becoming the first prominent journalist to examine America’s racial divide; it was extremely successful.
Why did Ida Tarbell not like Rockefeller?
Ida M. Tarbell, pictured here in 1904, made it the focus of her journalistic career to expose Standard Oil and Rockefeller’s brutal business practices. Tarbell later claimed she was opposed to Standard Oil
not simply because it was dominant but because of what she perceived to be unfair business practices
.
What methods did Ida Tarbell use to improve American life?
Ida Tarbell charged that
Standard Oil
was using illegal methods to hurt or destroy smaller oil companies. She investigated these illegal business dealings and wrote about them for a magazine called McClure’s. The reports she wrote led to legal cases that continued all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Who owns Standard Oil?
Standard Oil, in full Standard Oil Company and Trust, American company and corporate trust that from 1870 to 1911 was the industrial empire of
John D. Rockefeller and associates
, controlling almost all oil production, processing, marketing, and transportation in the United States.
How much is Standard Oil worth today?
If Standard Oil existed today in its single trust format, it would have been worth
over $1 trillion
making it the richest company in the world alongside Apple. And, John D. Rockefeller, if he were around today, would have had a net worth of around $400 billion, making him the richest man in the world.