[presently no screen name]

I suggest you read Ron Chernow’s biography, “Titan.” Many years ago , I read Nevins’s go at his life. But Chernow makes the man come to life. Consider how huge an enterprise Standard Oil became, They used to speak of Captains of Industry. Men like him, and Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Tom Scott , and Carnegie deserve that description, because what they were doing was empire building..literally.

Oh please! I see what impresses you! I'd rather focus on the UNNAMED widow in the bible who gave her last penny - that impressed JESUS. Your thoughts and interests are so worldly!

[RobbyS]

It is called giving the devil his due. We should hold capitalists like Rockefeller to the same standards to the standards that we hold all great men and vice versa. Ironically, Rockefeller himself agreed that great men should be held to the same standards as ordinary people, that we cannot separate private and public morality. He did examine his conscience and rightly or wrongly was able to reconcile his faith with his works as a businessman. And in his defense, it was an age of industrial warfare, and like Grant and Lee during the civil war, did what he thought he had to do. That was to rationalize an industry that was the epitome of Dog-eat-dog.