All in the Day's Work

At 82, Ida Tarbell sat down to chronicle a life that had helped reshape American industry and proved that a woman could out-investigate, out-write, and out-endure any man in the male-dominated world of journalism. Her groundbreaking investigation into Standard Oil, which helped dismantle John D. Rockefeller's monopoly, stands as one of the most consequential works of investigative journalism in American history. But her story begins long before that triumph, following her path from small-town Pennsylvania, through the corridors of power where she served on two presidential committees, into the lecture halls where she commanded attention, and across decades of breaking barriers in a profession that never wanted her. This autobiography captures not just the facts of a remarkable career but the temper, the perseverance, and the fierce independence of a woman who refused to be told what she could not do.