Ida Tarbell: Portrait of a Muckraker Book

This account is a timely reminder of the struggles of the Progressive Era of 100+ years ago, as we re-fight the same old battles against income inequality and corporate greed. Ida Tarbell's work is particularly timely because the story she pursued, for which she is most remembered, also had to do with fossil fuels. It's a story I absorbed from a young age from my father's references to relatives who'd helped Mr. Rockefeller make his millions by digging his oil wells and building derricks in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania where he grew up. This book also is a reminder of the critical importance of investigative journalism. Tarbell was among those who pioneered this kind of reporting. Whatever struggles she went through as a woman seem largely hidden - maybe they were hidden even from herself - but the author gives us a sense of Tarbell as a person not without failings, but dogged in her pursuit of the truth. It's a story that should be better known.