The Muckrakers: Ida Tarbell Takes on Big Business

The Muckrakers: Ida Tarbell Takes on Big Business — page 3
So Tarbell began her research by digging through thousands of pages of documents and conducting dozens of interviews Her series the History of the Standard Oil Company exposed the illegal and unethical practices Standard Oil had employed to take over the oil industry People across the United States clamored to read the articles which were so popular the original plan for a three part series was expanded to 19 articles In the end Standard Oil did not ruin McClure's In fact the magazine's circulation soared to nearly 500 000 subscribers For her part Tarbell became one of the most famous journalists in the country But for Tarbell writing the series was not about finding fame It was about exploring and exposing a company and an industry that had been part of her life almost from the time she was born The History of the Standard Oil Company remains one of the great case studies of what a single journalist armed with the facts can do against seeming invincible powers Childhood among Oil Fields Ida Tarbell was born on November 5 1857 in the small settlement of Hatch Hollow Pennsylvania Her parents Franklin and Esther Tarbell planned to move with their baby girl Ron Chernow Rockefeller biographer 1998