Between 19, Chernow published over sixty articles in national publications, including numerous cover stories. After graduating with honors from Yale College and Cambridge University with degrees in English Literature, he began a prolific career as a freelance journalist.

Titan is a magnificent biography-balanced, revelatory, elegantly written. Ron Chernow was born in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York. 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. He was the terror of his competitors, the bogeyman of reformers, the delight of caricaturists-and an utter enigma.ĭrawing 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. 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. Rockefeller, Sr.-historys first billionaire and the patriarch of Americas most famous dynasty-is an icon whose true nature has eluded three generations of historians. Rockefeller, Sr.-the Jekyll-and-Hyde of American capitalism. Ron Chernow 4.16 28,866 ratings1,555 reviews Want to read Kindle 12.99 Rate this book John D. National Book Critics Circle Award Finalistįrom the acclaimed, award-winning author of Alexander Hamilton: here is the essential, endlessly engrossing biography of John D.

Titan by ron chernow