Reply #14: "History of Standard Oil"-Tarbell, "Seven Sisters" Sampson, "Oil" Sinclair, "Oil, Land and Politics"

[fed-up]

"The History of The Standard Oil Company" - Two Volume Set-Ida Tarbell-1904
(note be sure to get the older original version, not the brief newer edition)-an excellent if not horrifying read-Rockefeller perfected techniques of Big Brother to gain control of Oil Industry

from the preface
http://www.history.rochester.edu/fuels/tarbell/PREFACE.HTM


This work is the outgrowth of an effort on the part of the editors of McClure's Magazine to deal concretely in their pages with the trust question. In order that their readers might have a clear and succinct notion of the processes by which a particular industry passes from the control of the many to that of the few, they decided a few years ago to publish a detailed narrative of the history of the growth of a particular trust. The Standard Oil Trust was chosen for obvious reasons. It was the first in the field, and it has furnished the methods, the charter, and the traditions for its followers. It is the most perfectly developed trust in existence; that is, it satisfies most nearly the trust ideal of entire control of the commodity in which it deals. Its vast profits have led its officers into various allied interests, such as railroads, shipping, gas, copper, iron, steel, as well as into banks and trust companies, and to the acquiring and solidifying of these interests it has applied the methods used in building up the Oil Trust. It has led in the struggle against legislation directed against combinations. Its power in state and Federal government, in the press, in the college, in the pulpit, is generally recognised. The perfection of the organisation of the Standard, the ability and daring with which it has carried out its projects, make it the pre-eminent trust of the world-the one whose story is best fitted to illuminate the subject of combinations of capital.

..snip

"The Seven Sisters: the Great Oil Companies & the World They Shaped" by Anthony Sampson-1975



"Oil" by Upton Sinclair-1927-great read, below is not my review, is snagged off addall

Sinclair"s 1927 novel did for California"s oil industry what "The Jungle" did for Chicago"s meat-packing factories. In "Oil!" Upton Sinclair fashioned a novel out of the oil scandals of the Harding administration, providing in the process a detailed picture of the development of the oil industry in Southern California. Bribery of public officials, class warfare, and international rivalry over oil production are the context for Sinclair"s story of a genial independent oil developer and his son, whose sympathy with the oilfield workers and socialist organizers fuels a running debate with his father. Senators, small investors, oil magnates, a Hollywood film star, and a crusading evangelist people the pages of this lively novel


and
" Oil, Land and Politics: the California Career of Thomas Robert Bard" by W.H. Hutchinson-haven't read this one yet

Bard was born in Pennsylvania in 1841 to wealthy and religious parents. His father was a successful attorney and Bard was trained in law, business and surveying. During the Civil War he was a railroader. Along with a cousin and family friend he decided to go to California to make his fortune in 1865. He was convinced that land and oil were the future of the country. He drilled and tunneled for oil in the Ojai area for years, meeting moderate but erratic success. Finally in 1890 he got together with a successful oil man from Pennsylvania, Lyman Stewart, and through very complex maneuverings merged his several companies into a new entity called Union Oil of California. Much early oil history is related as Union Cal took off to become a major oil company. Bard brought in California"s first gusher and he became a critical factor in helping a develop its oil industry. He had a bitter feud with Stewart and left Union Cal with a considerable fortune in 1900. He later participated actively in state and national politics where he consistently broke new ground