USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Ida M. Tarbell’s The History of the Standard Oil Company was first serialized in McClure’s Magazine starting in 1902 and then published as a best-selling book in 1904. Tarbell grew up around the Pennsylvania oil industry, where her father suffered from, and protested, John D. Rockefeller’s business practices.

Detailed explanation-2: -Tarbell then described how Rockefeller first began to receive special rates from the railroads. She demonstrated how Rockefeller used independent oil producers such as her father to further advance in the industry. Finally, she detailed the consolidation of Standard Oil as a monopoly.

Detailed explanation-3: -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. The Court found that Standard was an illegal monopoly and ordered it broken into 34 separate companies.

Detailed explanation-4: -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).