Titan
Bill Gates was on Charlie Rose last night with his father, Bill Gates. And, while Gates has come to represent great wealth and philanthropy in our time, before the rise of the computer, the name Rockefeller, more than any other in this country's history, has epitomized dynastic wealth, power and prestige. It is Ron Chernow's riveting biogrpaphy of John Davison Rockefeller, Sr.—aptly titled Titan—that we have for you today.
By the time of his death in 1937, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. had amassed 1.4 billion dollars; this when the GDP of the entire country was 91.9 billion (according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis statistics). Let's take a moment to put that in perspective. Last year, the GDP was 14,264.6 billion, and the world's richest person—according to Forbes recent 2009 list—was none other than Bill Gates himself, whose fortune is estimated at 40 billion. If I'm doing my math right, which I must tell you is dubious at best, then Rockefeller was roughly five times wealthier (relative to GDP) than Bill Gates is today. So, for all the talk of a new gilded age and executive compensation today, the original "robber baron" dwarfs his modern day counterpart.
"He embodied all [of American life's] virtues of thrift, self-reliance, hard work, and unflagging enterprise. Yet as someone who flouted government and rode roughshod over competitors, he also personified many of its most egregious vices."
There are some similarities between the two men, though. Both men had anti-trust suits brought against their companies. In fact, the controversy that swirled around Rockefeller's business activities was largely responsible for creating the anti-trust movement—and the subsequent anti-trust laws—that would break up his Standard Oil, and that the government would later use (unsuccessfully) against Bill Gates. Other than that hearing, Gates has, with a boring steadiness, largely and very blandly avoided the negative press and associations that usually accompany the building of a business empire. Rockefeller, on the other hand, did not disappoint, providing plenty of fodder for the muckrakers of his day. But, Rockefeller was also a very charitable individual and can be credited—along with Andrew Carnegie—with laying the foundation of, um, foundations in this country. Rockefeller is often credited as the inspiration behind Gates's own significant philanthropic work. (Oddly enough, Rockefeller's primary charitable adviser was Frederick T. Gates—no relation to Bill so far as I can tell—and Bill Gates was advised by David Rockefeller—the only surviving grandchild of John, Sr.—when forming his charitable organizations.) A deeply religious man, Rockefeller always tithed his income and gave to (and created) charitable institutions. As Chernow writes of Rockefeller's dual nature in his biography, "What makes him problematic—and why he continues to inspire ambivalent reactions—is that his good side was every bit as good as his bad side was bad. Seldom has history produced such a contradictory figure."
Rockefeller's influence is still very much evident in American life today, and Titan is an important biography that helps us understand better the man who had such a great hand in shaping the institutions, both business and philanthropic, that have largely shaped the history of our country.
We have 25 copies available.
P.S. If you're interested in this kind of biography, I'd also recommend—as Jack and Todd do in The 100 Best—David Nasaw's Andrew Carnegie. The most comically short of all robber barons, Carnegie is largely responsible for the creation of free public libraries in this country and, seeing as we're all insatiable readers here, we should all be thankful for that.
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