Ida Tarbell: The "Muckraker" Who Beat John D Rockefeller and Big Oil
Podcast: Business HistoryPublished On: Wed Jun 10 2026
Description: At a time when women couldn't vote or freely enter the workplace, Ida Tarbell took on the richest man in America and triumphed. Ida grew up in the Pennsylvania oil fields of the 1870s, and saw how John D Rockefeller and his company Standard Oil bought or bullied independent firms. Ida's neighbors and even her own father were in Rockefeller's sights. In adulthood, Ida joined a new movement in journalism. She was a "muckraker" - looking to dig up dirt on the greedy and unscrupulous monopolies of the Gilded Age. She wrote a 19-part investigation of Standard Oil that became a nationwide hit and forced the US government to act and break Rockefeller's empire apart. Write to us at businesshistory@pushkin.fmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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