What is the main message of Titan?

The main message of Titan is the life and impact of John D. Rockefeller.

Who is the author of Titan?

The author of Titan is Ron Chernow.

Biography & Memoir

Titan Book Summary - Titan Book explained in key points

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Titan summary

Name: Titan
Rating: 4.5 (96 reviews)
Author: Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow

The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

4.5 (96 ratings)

30 mins

Brief summary

Titan by Ron Chernow is a biography of the American industrial magnate John D. Rockefeller. It chronicles his rise to immense wealth and power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as examining his business practices and philanthropic legacy.

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Biographies

Table of Contents

Titan
Summary of 13 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 13

What’s in it for me? Understand that wealth alone is no reward.

Few people encapsulate the American dream as perfectly as John D. Rockefeller, whose life trajectory was the classic rags-to-riches story. He was self-made, determined and upwardly mobile throughout his long career. He created the template of what it meant to be rich, and understood that his wealth was not his to hoard, but was to be distributed to charitable causes.

He was a canny businessman whose dealings meant that his company, Standard Oil, acquired near-monopoly status at home, while maintaining a huge influence in foreign markets. However, when his empire was dismantled, it did not lead to a breakdown or to a wringing of hands. In fact, it made Rockefeller, who’d invested wisely, richer than ever before. This inspired a period of charitable giving and philanthropic activity, a legacy, arguably, far more important than Rockefeller’s actual business activities.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

what sort of muckraking was inspired by Rockefeller;
what diet and exercise regime keeps the super rich living into old age; and
how many Nobel prize winners owe a debt to Rockefeller.

Young John D. Rockefeller’s family relocated often thanks to his absentee father.

Around the year 1723, a German miller called Johann Peter Rockefeller, together with his wife and children, collected their belongings and headed for the United States. After initially arriving in Philadelphia, they settled on a farm in Amwell, New Jersey, acquiring a few properties over time. It was a modest start for a family that would, just over a century later, count one of the richest men in American history, John D. Rockefeller, among their number.

The man later known as “the oil titan” was born John Davison Rockefeller in 1839 in Richford, New York. He was the second child and first son of William “Bill” Avery Rockefeller and Eliza Davison Rockefeller.

Those first few years were spent in Richford. It was a small town with a schoolhouse church, but its sawmills, gristmills and whiskey distillery signaled its position as a growing industrial center.

In the early 1840s, Rockefeller's father decided to relocate his family to the more dignified town of Moravia, some 30 miles north of Richford. The rest of the hard-drinking, hillbilly Rockefeller clan was left behind. Bucolic Moravia marked a halcyon period for young John, as he watched his father’s logging business boom.

The family was religious. Rockefeller was brought up a Baptist, and the Church was an institution that would impact Rockefeller’s life significantly. Not only was Rockefeller to become the Protestant work ethic incarnate, Baptist religious dogma also taught him the value of continuous self-improvement and honor.

However, in the spring of 1850, the family moved once more – this time to Owego on the Pennsylvania border – after Bill was accused of raping the young househelp. Bill himself was generally a shadowy figure during Rockefeller’s childhood. He was a distant traveling salesman who was often absent for months at a time.

In his absence, Eliza gave Rockefeller tasks around the house, and he matured rapidly. In fact, he was more of a father than a brother to his siblings.

By the age of 16, Rockefeller enthusiastically entered the world of business, and met with rapid success.

In 1853, Bill Rockefeller forced his family to relocate once more. From Owego, they moved to Strongsville, a prairie town near Cleveland, Ohio. Like each of their earlier changes of address to larger and more prosperous towns, this one signified a little more social upward mobility.

Rockefeller also arrived in Strongsville as a well-educated young man: his time at Owego Academy, one of the finest schools in the area, had seen to that.

In the late 1860s, Rockefeller consolidated his oil interests in the Standard Oil Company.

The petroleum deal that marked Rockefeller’s first step to riches and fame was the one he struck with Lake Shore Railroad. It guaranteed him large rebates on transportation costs for shifting his oil. Oil itself was at the time a relatively cheap and abundant commodity, which meant that petroleum businesses that kept their margins down could remain competitive.

Rockefeller was alert to this fact. However, he had the business acumen to know that he could also give the railroad companies what they really needed: a constant supply of oil.

By 1875, Rockefeller was the king of American oil, but remained frugal in his habits.

The wheels were in motion: Rockefeller’s Standard Oil empire kept on absorbing its competitors and grew larger and larger.

What had really made the difference was Standard Oil’s taking over more than 50 percent of refining capacity in Pittsburgh, in 1874. It had also taken over the largest refinery in Philadelphia.

A restructured, New York-based Standard Oil began to face competition abroad.

By 1877, Standard Oil was operating a near monopoly in the American oil market. Only once was its status contested.

The Empire Transportation Company started offering bargain rates to woo refiners into using their own railroad tank cars instead of Standard’s. But Standard crushed the little troublemaker by underselling them.

Standard Oil moved into oil production and Rockefeller funded the new University of Chicago.

Standard Oil’s strategy for dealing with the competition it faced in foreign markets was broadly similar to its strategy in the United States: it drastically reduced its prices and also instigated a whispering campaign smearing Russian kerosene.

By the late 1880s, Standard Oil had crushed its competitors and presided over nearly 80 percent of the global market share.

Rockefeller retired in 1897 and his son began his tenure at Standard Oil.

Rockefeller was hardly short of critics, and the loudest by far was Henry Demarest Lloyd. In 1894, Lloyd published Wealth Against Commonwealth, a searing indictment of the predatory capitalism that Rockefeller embodied.

However, even though the book found a wide audience, this wasn’t what Rockefeller had cause to worry about – his health was declining.

In retirement, Rockefeller continued his philanthropic activities, and faced down attacks from the press.

When Rockefeller retired, the average American earned just over $500 a year. Rockefeller, in contrast, was raking in nearly $10 million – and this was before income taxes were introduced in the United States!

It’s no surprise, then, that Rockefeller was held up as the epitome of wealth itself.

While the press hunted for Rockefeller’s absentee father, he was more interested in philanthropy.

Ida Tarbell’s efforts to get the dirt on Rockefeller were unwavering. In fact, her work is where the muckraking school of investigative journalism got its name.

Her biggest success was finding out that Rockefeller’s mysterious father, Bill, was still alive.

In 1911, Standard Oil was forced to dismantle, bringing the Rockefeller monopoly to a close.

Rockefeller's philanthropy had cost him millions and millions of dollars. Even though there was an element of Christian charity to his largesse, there’s no doubt it was also a concerted effort to ameliorate the press’s caricature of him.

However, while Rockefeller sought to rehabilitate himself, his company was in its death throes.

In 1913, Rockefeller founded a global charity, but his efforts overshadowed by the shooting of striking miners.

To most people, the dismembering of your life’s work might well break you. But not so for Rockefeller. The dissolution of Standard Oil left him with more money that he knew what to do with — and it just kept on growing.

Already by the early 1900s, Rockefeller had flirted with the idea of establishing a charitable trust of the like no one had seen before. The end of Standard Oil offered the means and opportunity to do just that.

The 1910s saw increased philanthropic activity from father and son.

Even deep into his retirement, Rockefeller remained in robust health. However, the love of his life, his wife Cettie Spelman Rockefeller, had been declining for many years.

Since 1909, she had been confined to a wheelchair. She had numerous illnesses, leaving her largely bedridden and requiring nursing at all hours.

Rockefeller lived to a ripe old age, and he died on May 23, 1937, aged 97.

Rockefeller’s regime was a sound one. He played golf every day and held great stead in supping a daily spoonful of olive oil. He wanted to make it to 100 and was going strong.

By 1922, not only had he outlived most of his former business partners, but also his wife, and his younger brothers Frank and William as well. They’d died in in 1917 and 1922 respectively.

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What is Titan about?

Titan (1998) is a comprehensive biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., the original oil tycoon and founder of Standard Oil, the industry’s biggest name through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book tells Rockefeller’s story from his humble childhood through to his becoming the richest man in American history and his quirky retirement. It provides an insight into Rockefeller’s personal life, business practices and philanthropic efforts.

Titan Review

Titan (1998) by Ron Chernow is a captivating biography of John D. Rockefeller, one of the most influential figures in American history. Here's why this book is definitely worth reading:

It provides a fascinating glimpse into the life of a man who built an empire and shaped the modern world.
The book offers detailed insights into Rockefeller's ruthless business strategies and his impact on the oil industry and philanthropy.
Through a meticulously researched narrative, Chernow brings to life the complex character of Rockefeller, making the story absolutely compelling.

Best quote from Titan

Rockefeller got his first job at Hewitt and Tuttle on September 26, 1855. For the rest of his life and more than his birthday, Rockefeller celebrated September 26 as Job Day.

—Ron Chernow

Who should read Titan?

Lovers of biographies and inspiring life stories
Advocates and skeptics of capitalism
Entrepreneurs looking for inspiration

About the Author

Ron Chernow is an award-winning author of several best-selling books, including The House of Morgan, The Warburgs, Washington: A Life and Alexander Hamilton. He has been awarded the National Book Award, the George S. Eccles Prize and the Pulitzer Prize, in addition to seven honorary doctoral degrees.

Categories with Titan

Biography & Memoir

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