Ida tarbell definition us history

American writer, journalist, biographer and lecturer (–)

Ida Minerva Tarbell (November 5, &#;&#; January 6, ) was an American writer, investigative journalist, biographer, and lecturer.

She was one of the leading muckrakers and reformers of the Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was a pioneer of investigative journalism.

Born in Pennsylvania at the beginning of the oil boom, Tarbell is best known for her book The History of the Standard Oil Company. The book was first published as a series of articles in McClure's from to It has been called a "masterpiece of investigative journalism", by historian J.

North Conway, as well as "the single most influential book on business ever published in the United States" by historian Daniel Yergin. The work contributed to the dissolution of the Standard Oil monopoly and helped usher in the Hepburn Act of , the Mann-Elkins Act, the creation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the passage