(Header graphic designed in Piktochart by Wendy Nelson)
Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman who Challenged Big Business—and Won!
by Emily Arnold McCully
Grade 7 and up
Genre: Non-fiction
Genre: Non-fiction
McCully, E.A. (2014). Ida M. Tarbell: the woman who challenged big business—and won! New York: Clarion Books.
Review: Ida M. Tarbell (1857-1944) was a prominent journalist in the early 20th century. Her major claim to fame is as an investigative reporter (she disliked the label “muckraking”) who exposed the nefarious dealings of John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Trust conglomerate. Tarbell’s expose, published in the magazine she edited, McClure’s, brought her widespread acclaim and resulted in antitrust legislation and business regulation reform.
Though very well researched and impressively thorough, McCully’s book is not an easy read. Heavy on detail that may be of limited interest to young readers, and with florid, overwritten prose reminiscent of a bygone era (“The virile, piratically mustachioed Rogers excited Ida’s fervent regard” is just one example), this book may better serve as a reference than a pleasure read. But Tarbell’s story is so unfamiliar, and her influence so important, that neglecting it would be a shame.
Tarbell herself is an enigma. Never married (and firmly opposed), this intelligent career woman was nevertheless an anti-suffragist who believed that woman’s influence should remain at home. This contradiction may be why history has neglected her. She certainly deserves consideration as part of the important history of muckraking journalism during the era when big business ran unchecked by consideration for health, safety, and the common man. Tarbell and other intrepid reporters like Nellie Bly and Upton Sinclair were agents of social change whose influence is still felt today.—Wendy Nelson (2015).
A female journalist takes on the behemoth Standard Oil and its powerful founder, John D. Rockefeller, changing both reporting and business regulation.
In the period just before and after the Civil War, the nascent petroleum industry grew unchecked by regulations or ethical business practices, and women had few options outside of marriage and family. These two factors come together in the life of Ida M. Tarbell. Daughter of an early oil entrepreneur, Ida and her parents decided she should receive a solid education. Rejecting the traditional roles available to women, she embarked on a career as a journalist and writer. Eventually she made her name as a fearless investigative reporter, exposing the corrupt practices of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. In a startling departure, Caldecott winner McCully offers a thorough prose exploration of the life of a complex woman who defied the conventions of her time while coping with her own family difficulties, successfully contextualizing her work against its historical backdrop. The shift from picture-book form to long-form nonfiction is not without its bumps; the detailed narrative moves slowly as it describes project after journalistic project, and the archival images McCully includes do not sufficiently break up the text.
Though Tarbell rejected the term, this will appeal primarily to those interested in the history of muckraking journalism. (source notes, bibliography, photo credits, index not seen) (Nonfiction. 12-16)
Teaching Ideas
(VA SOL VUS.8)Timeline Activity
Most of Ida Tarbell’s most important work was in opposition to John D. Rockefeller. She grew up in Western Pennsylvania during the Oil Rush and this informed many of her opinions about social justice. On the other hand, the Oil Rush helped Rockefeller build his wealth and eventually led to the development of the Standard Oil Company. View a timeline of Rockefeller’s life and compare his biography to that of Tarbell. What are some key similarities and differences? Discuss how two people experiencing similar conditions can respond to them differently.
Timeline: http://fileserver.net-texts.com/asset.aspx?dl=no&id=2400
Child Labor
Ida Tarbell wrote extensively about the evils of protective tariffs, and in the process she documented terrible working conditions, including the misery of child labor. In the case of child labor, the photographs of Lewis Hine had a huge impact on public perception of this issue. Divide students into groups, give them each a copy of a different Lewis Hine photo of child labor (including the caption he wrote) and have them complete a photo analysis. Ask them to write a first-person narrative paragraph from the perspective of the child/children in the photos and share these with the class. Discuss why photographs and first-person narrative can have such a strong emotional impact on the viewer.
Search catalog for photos: http://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/
Photo analysis worksheet: http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/photo.html
Women’s Suffrage
Ida Tarbell, despite being an intelligent, independent career woman, was not in favor of women’s right to vote. This is hard to understand for today’s students. Examine the Currier and Ives lithograph The Age of Brass and compare the stereotypes pictured here with the arguments outlined in the anti-suffrage leaflet “Don’t Fail to Read This.” Have students read the suffragist flyer “Votes for Women: The Woman’s Reason.” Hold a brief in-class debate in which groups of students argue both sides of the suffragist issue from the perspective of those in that era.
Lithograph: http://www.virginiamemory.com/docs/hires/AgeofBrass.pdf
Leaflet: http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/colosuff/doc19.htm
Votes for Women: http://memory.loc.gov/rbc/rbpe/rbpe13/rbpe132/13200400/001dr.jpg
Call to Action
“Muckraking” journalists identified and reported on societal problems and wrote articles to bring awareness to these issues. Have students identify some examples of modern issues that journalists or activists have brought to the public’s attention. How are these issues communicated today (vs. the newspapers and magazines of past eras)? In groups, have students choose and research an issue and make a 30-second audio or video public service announcement with a call to action.
Newswriting and Bias
So-called muckrakers reported on issues of the day, but although their news stories were impressively researched, they were not unbiased. These journalists aimed to make social change and reveal injustices through their writing. However, most modern journalists are carefully trained to include only the "Five W's" in news articles. For homework, students should locate an article online or in print media that appears to take a position on any issue. As an in-class assignment, students should attempt to rewrite the article without any appearance of bias. This exercise may also be done in reverse—students rewrite a just-the-facts article to include a personal bias.
Further Explorations
McClure's Magazinehttp://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000548741
This digital archive contains many scanned copies of McClure's issues. It is interesting to see what magazines looked like in the early 20th century when Tarbell's career was at its height.
The History of the Standard Oil Company
http://www.pagetutor.com/standard/
Ida Tarbell's entire book is available online. This is the full and complete digital version including all images, tables, etc.
Nellie Bly: The First Woman Journalist
Nellie Bly, who also hailed from Western Pennsylvania, was a contemporary with Ida Tarbell and followed a similar journalistic path.
Chautaqua Institution
The Chautaqua Movement played an important role in Ida Tarbell’s educational development and she was hired to edit and write for the Chautaquan journal as a young woman. The institution is still in existence today. Learn more about its history here.
American Experience: The Rockefellers
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/rockefellers/player/
A PBS website devoted to the subject of the Rockefellers and the TV documentary American Experience. Along with plenty of good reading material and photographs, the entire two-hour episode is available to view online.
American Experience: One Woman, One Vote
PBS special on the suffragist movement. Available to watch online.
Progressive Era: The Muckrakers
This short video outlines the muckraking movement that included the careers of Tarbell, Sinclair, Bly, and many others.
Partner Titles
Ida Tarbell’s autobiography, All in a Day's Work
Tarbell, I.M. (2003). All in the day's work: an autobiography. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Though it covers much of the same territory as Ida M. Tarbell, excerpts from Tarbell's autobiography may prove enlightening and deepen background knowledge or answer student's questions about Tarbell's life.
Nellie Bly’s collected works
Tarbell, I.M. (2003). All in the day's work: an autobiography. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Though it covers much of the same territory as Ida M. Tarbell, excerpts from Tarbell's autobiography may prove enlightening and deepen background knowledge or answer student's questions about Tarbell's life.
Nellie Bly’s collected works
Bly, N. (2014). Around the world in seventy-two days and other writings. New York: Penguin Classics.
Journalist Nellie Bly is an interesting counterpart to Tarbell, and an awareness of her work will help deepen students' background knowledge of the era of muckraking journalism.
The history of oil in a YA book
Journalist Nellie Bly is an interesting counterpart to Tarbell, and an awareness of her work will help deepen students' background knowledge of the era of muckraking journalism.
The history of oil in a YA book
Marrin, A. (2012). Black gold: the story of oil in our lives. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers.
Black Gold is an engaging tale of the history of oil. Because oil is such an important part of Ida Tarbell's story, students may benefit from the background knowledge about the oil rush and the importance of oil to society.
Black Gold is an engaging tale of the history of oil. Because oil is such an important part of Ida Tarbell's story, students may benefit from the background knowledge about the oil rush and the importance of oil to society.
Upton Sinclair’s classic of muckraking fiction, The Jungle:
Sinclair, U. (1906). The jungle. Available to read online at http://www.online-literature.com/upton_sinclair/jungle/ and in many print editions.
Perhaps the best-known classic work of literature that directly sprung from the muckrakers, Sinclair's The Jungle is a disturbing, affecting novel about the meat-packing industry in Chicago at the turn of the century. Ida Tarbell makes a good companion book to this classic.
A definitive Rockefeller biography:
Chernow, R. (2004). Titan: the life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. New York: Vintage Books.
Titan is not aimed at the young adult audience, but it is an excellent biography of Rockefeller, a man who is a direct antagonist in Tarbell's career. Students who have questions about Rockefeller can find answers here.
Titan is not aimed at the young adult audience, but it is an excellent biography of Rockefeller, a man who is a direct antagonist in Tarbell's career. Students who have questions about Rockefeller can find answers here.
All Resources Listed:
American experience: one
woman, one vote. (n.d.) Available at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/OneWomanOneVote/
American experience: The
rockefellers. (n.d.) Available at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/rockefellers/player/
Anti-woman suffrage: Don’t
fail to read this. (1893). Retrieved from http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/colosuff/doc19.htm
Bly, N. (2014). Around the
world in seventy-two days and other writings. New York: Penguin Classics.
Chautauqua Institution:
our history. (2015.) Retrieved from http://ciweb.org/about-us/about-chautauqua/our-history
Chernow, R. (2004). Titan:
the life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. New York: Vintage Books.
Currier and Ives. (1869).
Age of Brass. [lithograph] Retrieved from http://www.virginiamemory.com/docs/hires/AgeofBrass.pdf
Fritz, A. (n.d.) Nellie
Bly online. Available at http://www.nellieblyonline.com
John D. Rockefeller
timeline. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://fileserver.net-texts.com/asset.aspx?dl=no&id=2400
Hathi Trust Digital
Library. (n.d.) Catalog record: McClure's magazine. Available at http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000548741
Kirkus Reviews. (April 30,
2014). Ida M. Tarbell: the woman who challenged big business—and won! Retrieved
from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/emily-arnold-mccully-5/ida-m-tarbell/
Lewis Hine photos in the
National Archives Catalog. (n.d.) Available at http://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/
Marrin, A. (2012). Black
gold: the story of oil in our lives. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers.
McCully, E.A. (2014). Ida
M. Tarbell: the woman who challenged big business—and won! New York: Clarion
Books.
MrVEducation (username). (2012).
Progressive Era: the muckrakers. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwV2lWOgX1M
National American Woman
Suffrage Association. (1912). Votes for women! The women's reason. Retrieved
from http://memory.loc.gov/rbc/rbpe/rbpe13/rbpe132/13200400/001dr.jpg
Photo analysis worksheet.
(n.d.) Available at http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/photo.html
Sinclair, U. (1906). The
jungle. Available to read online at http://www.online-literature.com/upton_sinclair/jungle/ and
in many print editions.
Tarbell, I.M. (2003). All
in the day's work: an autobiography. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois
Press.
Tarbell,
I.M. (1904). The history of the standard oil company. Available at http://www.pagetutor.com/standard/
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