The Secondary Sources

Much like the Primary Sources bibliography page, this article lists the Secondary Sources that have been most informative to my own research into Ida Tarbell. This list is in no way exhaustive, but I have aimed to highlight some of the most significant secondary sources, including books, articles and online material.

Books on Ida Tarbell

Emily McCully’s Ida M. Tarbell The Woman Who Challenged Big Business – And Won! (2014)

McCully’s 2014 biography has been one of the most informative secondary sources for many works on Tarbell, as well as my own website. Celebrated by many publications, including the Washington Post and School Library Journal, McCully offers one of the most intimate and deep explorations of Tarbell’s life. While of course examining her writing career, McCully goes further in looking at Tarbell’s childhood, and formative experiences throughout her life. McCully’s focus on the complexities and nuances of Tarbell’s opinions on subjects like society, culture and suffrage, sets her apart from other Tarbell profiles. This is emphasised by the author’s inclusion of a broader historical trajectory of women’s rights and experiences in America. This expands beyond biography and, in my opinion, highlights Tarbell’s value as a historical figure in exploring questions of legacy.

McCully, Emily A. Ida M. Tarbell: The Woman Who Challenged Big Business – And Won!. Clarion Books, 2014.

Kathleen Brady’s Ida Tarbell: Portrait of a Muckraker (1989)

An earlier biography of Tarbell; Kathleen Brady’s work was one of the first to employ Tarbell’s more personal and private source material, such as her diaries and unpublished manuscripts, to build a more three-dimensional picture of the journalist. Brady’s main question and theme throughout the book is exploring what she refers to as the “enigma” of Tarbell and her relationship to feminism. Portrait of a Muckraker lays out not only Tarbell’s negative stance towards suffrage, but also the way Tarbell’s own life and career would come to represent the social change she argued against. Additionally, Brady’s work goes further than questioning her feminist reading and also looks at the way Tarbell’s position on aspects such as big business and political engagement developed.

Brady, Kathleen. Ida Tarbell: Portrait of a Muckraker. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989.

Steve Weinberg’s Taking on the Trust (2009)

Weinberg, an investigative journalist himself, writes Taking on the Trust as a juxtaposition of Ida Tarbell with John D. Rockefeller. While Weinberg’s work is in no way a biography, and largely neglects Tarbell’s career post The History of The Standard Oil Company, the book is an important secondary source in highlighting Tarbell’s lasting legacy on the investigative journalism profession. Weinberg explores the “Inner Fire” of journalists (what he described as “sustained controlled outrage” and “relentless curiosity”) and how he identified these characteristics and values in Tarbell, which in turn made her such an impactful journalist. What makes Weinberg’s account so fascinating is that he clearly sees himself, among other contemporary investigative journalists, as the heirs to Tarbell’s legacy. This helps us to pose more questions about why Tarbell is such an attractive historical figure for modern audiences, and how understanding her nuances can further develop our picture of the Progressive Era at large.

Weinberg, Steve. Taking on the Trust: How Ida Tarbell Brought Down John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. W. W. Norton & Co., 2009.

Other Notable Books on Ida Tarbell

More Than a Muckraker

Kochersberger, Robert C. More Than a Muckraker: Ida Tarbell’s Lifetime in Journalism. University of Tennessee Press, 2017.

Pioneer Investigative Reporter

Somervill, Barbara A. Ida Tarbell: Pioneer Investigative Reporter. Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2002.

Articles on Ida Tarbell

Robert Stinson’s Ida M. Tarbell and the Ambiguities of Feminism (1977)

A precursor to Kathleen Brady’s work, in this article Stinson tackles the question of Tarbell and suffrage. The article offers a step by step overview of Tarbell’s views on suffrage, women’s role in American society, and how they evolved over time. Stinson also looks at various other historians’ conclusions about why her views against suffrage were so distinct, including David Chalmer’s suggestion that Tarbell had regretted not marrying and having a family, which she then believed the suffrage movement was advocating for. Stinson develops this position, and argues that Tarbell’s resistance, and public stance against suffrage, may have been due to her own more intimate, and complex, navigation of being a successful woman in the Progressive Era. Tarbell, pursuing achievement in journalism and writing, felt the necessity to “liberate” herself from the domestic sphere, despite her perception that it was the natural place for women. These feelings towards her own career led her, Stinson claims, to a certain hostility towards the suffrage movement.

Stinson’s article is fascinating as a secondary source in his use of Tarbell’s both published and unpublished materials to fill out this highly complex, and almost tragic, picture of Tarbell.

Stinson, Robert. “Ida M. Tarbell and the Ambiguities of Feminism.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography vol. 101, no. 2 (1977): 217-239.

Josephine Randolph’s A Notable Pennsylvanian: Ida Minerva Tarbell, 1857-1944 (1999)

Randolph’s article offers a detailed overview of Ida Tarbell’s life and career. Randolph touches on some of the most important aspects of Tarbell’s legacy, including her impact on investigative journalism, the American economy and debates about suffrage. What makes Randolph’s article most significant as a secondary source, I would argue, is its focus on Tarbell as distinctly Pennsylvanian. Writing for Pennsylvania History Randolph departs from many other historians by focusing on how Tarbell interacted with her home-state throughout her life, including her family ties there, celebrations at her alma mater and local communities. This geographical angle to Randolph’s biography of Tarbell, I believe again highlights Tarbell’s value as a historical figure. This is best shown in Randolph’s final lines,

"Historians quite properly accord Ida Minerva Tarbell recognition as a prominent muckraker, whose accomplishments have been recognized world-wide. But, she was first a Pennsylvanian." Pg. 239

Randolph, Josephine D. “A Notable Pennsylvanian: Ida Minerva Tarbell, 1857-1944.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies vol. 66, no. 2 (1999): 215-241.

Other Notable Books on Ida Tarbell

“Muckraker or historian?” The Diary Review

Paul K. Lyon’s The Diary Review describes itself as “A vast, international and unrivalled collection of diary extracts – from over 1,000 diarists.” While Lyon’s article on Ida Tarbell mostly recaps Kathleen Brady’s usage of the diary material at Allegheny College Archives for her biography; the webpage is nonetheless a good source for finding extracts of Tarbell’s diary online.

Lyons, Paul K. “Muckraker or historian” The Diary Review, thediaryjunction.blogspot.com, 05.11.2017.

Discussion

How do you think a secondary source’s topic theme changes the way the author and reader interprets history? (Robert Stinson’s focus on feminism vs. Steve Weinberg’s focus on journalism, for example).

Do you see any variations among these secondary sources, for the kinds of primary source they interact with? And how do you think any of these works might change if the author put more weight on a different set of primary sources?

How do you think Ida Tarbell might respond to these interpretations of her?

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