Reflections on 'Titan', the Definitive Biography of John D. Rockefeller

As we consider a new Gilded Age

I have just finished the fascinating, definitive 1998 biography by Ron Chernow, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr, the richest man on the planet before the enactment of the progressive income tax in 1913, and many regulatory reforms since then. And one of the world’s greatest philanthropists, who redeemed his image by giving away lots of his mon…