Description: National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
From the acclaimed, award-winning author of Alexander Hamilton here is the essential, endlessly engrossing biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.--the Jekyll-and-Hyde of American capitalism. In the course of his nearly 98 years, Rockefeller 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 caricaturists--and an utter enigma. Drawing on unprecedented access to Rockefeller's private papers, Chernow reconstructs his subjects' troubled origins (his father was a swindler and a bigamist) and his single-minded pursuit of wealth. But he also uncovers the profound religiosity that drove him "to give all I could"; his devotion to his father; and the wry sense of humor that made him the country's most colorful codger. Titan is a magnificent biography--balanced, revelatory, elegantly written.Review Quotes: "A biography that has many of the best attributes of a novel. . . . Wonderfully fluent and compelling." --The New York Times
"A triumph of the art of biography. Unflaggingly interesting, it brings John D. Rockefeller Sr. to life through sustained narrative portraiture of the large-scale, nineteenth-century kind." --The New York Times Book Review
"Important and impressive. . . . Reveals the man behind both the mask and the myth." --The Wall Street Journal
"One of the great American biographies. . . . [Chernow] writes with rich impartiality. He turns the machinations of Standard Oil . . . into fascinating social history." --Time