Titan

Titan (Ron Chernow)

  • Not great. A lot longer (5x) than it needed to be.
  • Seemed like part of a dialogue with other Rockefeller biographers, rather than a straight bio.
  • Rockefeller embodied the capitalist revolution that followed the Civil war and transformed American life.
  • "We will let it simmer" Saying employed thought JDRs business career.
  • Able to ship by river or land, Rockefeller gained the critical leverage he needed to secure preferential rates on transportation.
  • "It is very important to remember what other people tell you, not so much what you yourself already know"
  • He was a stickler for the truth in presenting facts, never fudged or equivocated in discussing problems, and promptly repaid loans.
  • Transportation played a pivotal place in the petroleum business for a simple reason: oil was discovered in a distant inaccessible spot that was (first) poorly served by the railroads. Since oil was a relatively cheap, standardized commodity, transportation costs inevitably figured as a critical factor in the competitive struggle.
  • The most compelling argument against rebates was that railroads received state charters and therefore had the right of eminent domain, investing their activities with a public character.
  • The law in the Standard Oil offices: Nobody does anything if he can get somebody else to do it. AS soon as you can, get someone whom you can rely on, train him in the work, sit down cock up your heels and think out some way for Standard Oil to make some money.
  • "A young man who wants to succeed in business does not require chemistry of physics. He can always hire scientists."
  • Rockefeller positioned himself where he wanted to be – poised to profit from either surplus or scarcity and all but immune to the vagaries of the marketplace.
  • Rockefeller's papers reveal that he and Standard Oil entered willingly into a staggering amount of corruption.
  • One of Rocker-fellers greatest talents was to manage and motivate his diverse associates.
  • A laconic man, he liked to canvass everyone's opinion before expressing his own and then often crafted a compromise to maintain cohesion. He was always careful to couch his decisions as suggestions or questions.
  • "Dont say that I ought to do this or that" say that "We ought to do it."
  • He preferred outspoken colleagues to weak-kneed sycophants and welcomed differences of opinion so long as they weren't personalized.
  • Standard Oil was one of the first companies to develop a significant R&D program with scientists pushing progress.
  • Standard Oil had taught the American public an important paradoxical lesson: Free markets if left completely to their own devices can wind up terribly unfree.
  • Rockefeller hired people based on general ability not on specific skills.
  • Ida Tarbell's series remains the most impressive thing every written about Standard Oil. It remains one of the greatest case studies of what a single journalist armed with the facts can do against seemingly invincible powers.
  • Ida re:standard Oil. "They had never played fair and they ruined their greatness for me"
  • Seldom has history produced such a contradictory figure: his good side was every bit as good as his bad side was bad.
  • Roosevelt was reluctant to wield the big stick against Standard Oil. He preferred compromise in antitrust cases, which were slow, time-consuming, and difficult to win. He wanted to supervise trusts, not break them up and sacrifice their efficiency.
  • Rockefeller's press critics profited from a fleeting transitional moment when corporations had not adapted to the new media and lacked any PR apparatus.
  • The fiercest robber baron turned out to be the foremost philanthropist.

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