BOOK REVIEW: Taking on the Trust

"As the nation enters a new era of populism and progressive politics, it cries out for journalists who play hardball with facts, not spin."

Now that oil commands a record $117 a barrel, I can't help but wonder what investigative reporter Ida Tarbell would say about its stranglehold on people, politics and economies around the globe.

Would she trade in her pen for a laptop and follow the story to Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia? Would she pursue the presidential candidates on the campaign trail and behind closed doors, pressing for facts on their ties to mega-corporations like Wal-Mart, Microsoft and big oil? Would she be energized by the populist movement that is once again sweeping across our country?

Ida Tarbell (1857-1944) was a champion of the middle class if there ever was one. The Pennsylvania native exposed the predatory business practices of John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil trust in her groundbreaking series for McClure's magazine, which led to the landmark Supreme Court anti-trust decision in 1911.

Tarbell grew up among the independent oil producers of northwestern Pennsylvania who suffered at the hand of Rockefeller's giant monopoly. Her own father, a tank builder, had spoken out against Standard Oil's unfair practices; and her brother, an executive with Pure Oil Company, was a direct competitor.

Some say she had an ax to grind, but a new book by investigative journalist Steve Weinberg puts that theory to rest. In Taking on the Trust: The Epic of Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller Weinberg argues: "…coming of age in the oil region and having family in the oil industry only fueled her passion to conduct an exhaustive inquiry, not to settle personal or philosophical scores."

Tarbell pioneered the practice of investigative reporting during the Progressive Era, an age of hope and reform when writers were determined to search out corruption in government, politics, and all phases of American life. Their journalistic mission was to root out inequalities and injustice, using their writing as an instrument of social change, says Weinberg, who teaches at the University of Missouri Journalism School.

While Tarbell was preparing "The History of The Standard Oil Company," Lincoln Steffens was uncovering urban political corruption in "The Shame of the Cities," and Ray Stannard Baker was documenting labor unrest in "The Right to Work." The three investigative series ran concurrently in McClure's Magazine.

In his book, Weinberg traces Tarbell's evolution as an investigative journalist as he chronicles Rockefeller's rise during a period of unregulated industrial growth after the Civil War. The dual biography is awkward and difficult to follow at times. Weinberg departs from chronological order to draw side-by-side comparisons and to insert commentary in retrospect.

But the structure does not diminish the book's importance. Previously unpublished details about Tarbell's formative years are now part of the public record, thanks to Weinberg's 10-year search through public and private collections across the country, including those in northwestern Pennsylvania. The method by which Tarbell unraveled the giant monopoly is laid out by Weinberg with clarity and precision. And her shocking discovery of indisputable evidence of espionage and collusion is revealed in the book's final chapters, if readers can only hang on long enough.

Weinberg might take some heat for using words like "remarkable," "peerless," and "unparalleled documentary skills" to describe Tarbell's work, but he is not alone.

A History of the Standard Oil Company ranks fifth in the Top 100 Works of 20th Century Journalism, right behind by John Hershey's Hiroshima, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Woodward and Bernstein's investigation of the Watergate break-in, and Edward R. Murrow's reporting during the Battle of Britain. The list was compiled in 1999 by 36 judges assembled by New York University's journalism department.

Pulitzer-prize winning author of The Prize Daniel Yergin called it one of the most important business books ever written. Even Tarbell's colleague, Ray Stannard Baker, once said, "that anyone who attempted to write about Ida Tarbell's life would have a problem writing about goodness."

As the nation enters a new era of populism and progressive politics, it cries out for journalists of Tarbell's high standards, the ones who play hardball with facts, not spin.

And so I forgive Steve Weinberg for an occasional lapse into hero worship. Tarbell is my hero, too.
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Lisa Gensheimer and her husband, Rich Gensheimer, are the producers of Ida Tarbell: All in the Day's Work, a documentary distributed nationally on public television in 2000. They crossed paths with Weinberg while conducting their research, and include commentary from him in their documentary.

*Adapted from a review first published April 20, 2008 in the Sunday Erie Times-News.

Taking on the Trust: The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller
W.W. Norton
304 pp.
$25.95