Welcome. This is your WBZ book Club. I'm Jordan Rich. Ron Cherno has written several biographies of note. One of them is called Titan, The Life of John D. Rockefeller Senior. He was certainly a business tycoon, but he was also a philanthropist, and Cherno offers quite a bit of insight into Rockefeller, who was America's first billionaire and who created a financial empire that's still very much in place today. Rockefeller, as you may know, created
Standard Oil, which became an incredibly powerful monopoly. Many of John Rockefeller's capitalistic practices were less than honorable, and the Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil must be dismantled for violation of federal antitrust laws in nineteen eleven. But there's also the positives, the incredible amount of philanthropy, particularly during his retirement years, giving millions to benefit medicine, healthcare, higher education, and the modernization of
the American South. It's a complex, multi layered look at a financial giant who built a fortune with questionable deals, but a man who lived long enough to give so much back. Titan, The Life of John D. Rockefeller Senior, by Ron Cherno The Book Club WBZ Boston News Radio,