tahir
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45432
Location: Essex
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 Posted: Sun May 01, 05 11:30 am Post subject: John D Rockefeller |
 
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Radio 4 Friday 23:00 Great Lives
Series of biographical discussions with Francine Stock. Martin Smith, head of the English National Opera, nominates John D Rockefeller.
John D Rockefeller was for a time the richest, and perhaps most hated, man in the world. Creator of Standard Oil, father of Mobil, Chevron, Exxon and Amoco, his net worth in 1913 was $900m, much of it acquired controversially - and then he began to give it all away. Bertrand Russell reckoned two men were supreme in creating the modern world: Rockefeller and Bismarck.
Rockefeller's proposer is Martin Smith, a financier with a highly developed interest in the arts. He's involved with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment, and the Science Museum, among other organisations, and he's chairman of the English National Opera, to whom he donated £1 million in 2001. He admires Rockefeller as a brilliant businessman in an age when the rules were not yet written, but is unclear on whether he is a sinner or a saint.
Eric Homberger, professor of American Studies at UEA, provides the background detail on the father, Devil Bill, and the events leading up to the Cleveland Massacre of 1872, when strong arm tactics led Rockefeller to take control of 22 of 26 refineries in the area, and the Rockefeller millions were made. |
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