A Monopoly Isn’t the Same as Legitimate Greatness

Competent monopolists aren’t good monopolists

If you do much reading about antitrust, you’re sure to come across Ida Tarbell, the campaigning investigative journalist whose masterful 1904 book, The History of the Standard Oil Company (free ebook, free audiobook), brought down John D. Rockefeller and his monopolistic Standard Oil Company, which was broken up in 1911. It split into seven companies, many of which are still with us—or were, until recent mergers (think: Exxon, Mobil, Esso, Chevron, Texaco, and Amoco).

After repeatedly reading about Tarbell’s remarkable work, I decided I should read it for myself. I’d just finished Amy Klobuchar’s somewhat overlong Antitrust (do yourself a favor and skip it, trying either Zephyr Teachout’s Break ’Em Up or David Dayen’s Monopolized for a more disciplined and invigorating read, though if you see a copy of Antitrust in a bookstore, do peruse its excellent selection of trustbuster-era editorial cartoons) and decided it was past time for me to read Tarbell’s work.

It’s a fantastic book. Tarbell was a sprightly writer with a talent for understatement as she unraveled the…