Ida Minerva Tarbell

Lincoln is the single most compelling figure in our history, but also one of the most enigmatic. Was he the Great Emancipator, a man of deep convictions who ended slavery in the United States, or simply a reluctant politician compelled by the force of events to free the slaves? In Father Abraham , Richard Striner offers a fresh portrait of Lincoln, one that helps us make sense of his many contradictions. Striner shows first that, if you examine the speeches that Lincoln made in the 1850s, you will have no doubt of his passion to end slavery. These speeches illuminate the anger, vehemence, and sheer brilliance of candidate Lincoln, who worked up crowds with charismatic fervor as he gathered a national following. But if he felt so passionately about abolition, why did he wait so long to release the Emancipation Proclamation? As Striner points out, politics is the art of the possible, and Lincoln was a consummate politician, a shrewd manipulator who cloaked his visionary ethics in the more pragmatic garb of the coalition-builder. He was at bottom a Machiavellian prince for a democratic age. When secession began, Lincoln used the battle cry of saving the Union to build a power base, one that would eventually break the slave-holding states forever. Striner argues that Lincoln was a rare man indeed: a fervent idealist and a crafty politician with a remarkable gift for strategy. It was the harmonious blend of these two qualities, Striner concludes, that made Lincoln's role in ending slavery so fundamental. Father Abraham challenges recent portraits of Lincoln as an essentially passive politician and reluctant abolitionist.

"In this frank and informative autobiography, the veteran investigative journalist Ida M. Tarbell looks back on her nearly fifty-year career. At the age of eighty-two, one of the original muckrakers writes with characteristic candor and intelligence about a life spent defying categories and challenging complacency. Robert C. Kochersberger's introduction gives an overview of Tarbell's life and work, including achievements she omitted from her memoir out of modesty, and examines her enduring value to journalists of the twenty-first century." "Tarbell was the only woman in her class of forty students at Allegheny College. Shortly after graduation she took a job at The Chautauquan, beginning a lifelong immersion in the world of journalism. But it was at McClure's magazine - where she was the only woman on staff - that Tarbell made her name as a determined journalist, one of the fearless brigade of truth seekers famously chastised by Theodore Roosevelt, who used the term "muckraker" to discredit those who attacked U.S. senators in print. Tarbell also wrote serialized biographies of Napoleon and Abraham Lincoln, as well as a landmark series of articles on Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller." "In All in the Day's Work, Tarbell turns her keen eye on herself, recalling the events of her fascinating life with the same honesty, verve, and attention to detail she brought to her journalistic work, offering insight along the way into the people, places, and issues of her time."--Jacket.

Missing page 208.

À l'aube du XXe siècle, une ressource d'un genre nouveau, tapie dans les entrailles de la terre, déchaîne tous les appétits : c'est l'or noir. Aux États-Unis, cœur battant de la révolution industrielle, des milliers de barils du précieux liquide sont écoulés chaque jour – et la demande ne fait que croître. Mais à force de manœuvres, une entreprise, la Standard Oil Company, est parvenue à faire main basse sur la quasi-totalité de son commerce, et abuse de ce monopole pour imposer à tous la loi de ses seuls profits. Rien ne semble pouvoir arrêter son expansion ni l'influence de son fondateur, John D. Rockefeller... Une femme va cependant se dresser contre cet ogre économique : Ida Tarbell, considérée comme l'une des pionnières du journalisme d'investigation moderne. Entre 1902 et 1904, elle publie dans une revue indépendante, le McClure's Magazine, une série d'articles révélant les pratiques déloyales, sinon illicites, employées par la Standard Oil pour neutraliser ses rivales. Son enquête choc provoquera une déflagration dans l'opinion publique qui conduira la justice américaine, en 1911, à reconnaître l'entreprise coupable de violation du droit de la concurrence et à ordonner son démantèlement. C'en sera fini du plus grand trust de l'histoire des États-Unis. Ici traduit en français pour la première fois, le livre de Tarbell est un monument de la littérature américaine qui brasse tous les éléments de sa mythologie – une plongée dans l'enfance terrible du capitalisme, lorsque tout était encore permis.

Historical fiction in vernacular.