National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist From the acclaimed award-winning author of
Alexander Hamilton: here is the essential endlessly engrossing biography of John D.
Rockefeller Sr. the Jekyll-and-Hyde of American capitalism. In the course of his nearly 98
years Rockefeller was known as both a rapacious robber baron whose Standard Oil Company rode
roughshod over an industry and a philanthropist who donated money lavishly to universities and
medical centers. He was the terror of his competitors the bogeyman of reformers the delight
of caricaturists and an utter enigma. Drawing on unprecedented access to Rockefeller s private
papers Chernow reconstructs his subjects troubled origins (his father was a swindler and a
bigamist) and his single-minded pursuit of wealth. But he also uncovers the profound
religiosity that drove him to give all I could his devotion to his father and the wry sense
of humor that made him the country s most colorful codger. Titan is a magnificent biography
balanced revelatory elegantly written.
