There are giants of the second half of the nineteenth century who are well known, and not so well known. For my summer reading, I am journeying through the stories of Rockefeller, Grant, Burr and Mueller.
On audiocassette (via a find at the Goodwill), I’m listening to George Plimpton read The Titan, by Chernow. The book gives an in-depth look at John D. Rockefeller, Sr. and the rise of Standard Oil. Rockefeller put up his first oil refinery in Cleveland in 1862, and by 1866, some 70 refineries (of various owners) were in operation.
From my father’s library comes a copy of Gore Vidal’s 1876 about Aaron Burr and the corrupt Grant administration. I am about to dip into this “consummate work of historical fiction” for my next summer reading adventure.
One not-so-well-known giant of the 19th century is Jacob Mueller. Mueller came to the United States in the wave of Germans after the Revolution of 1848. He was the editor of the Wachter und Anzeiger German newspaper in Cleveland, and also penned Cleveland and Its Germans and Memories of a Forty-Eighter. Since these books were written in German, they received little attention, but I’m fortunate that in 1996 the Western Reserve Historical Society brought out translations. Here’s a quote from 48er that could be written today:
Without being intended as such, the American government is a government of parties, and the discipline of party controls even the most important politician. All must bow down to these idols if they want to have any significance, and often they have to sacrifice their own opinions.
… [In campaigns], all that was done in public was simple, artificial enthusiasm. Much noise and little substance. Party zealots and party-leaders carried the day. Almost inhuman feats were accomplished in one party maligning the other. … Fortunately, things were not so bad as the stump speakers painted them.
(Memories of a Forty-Eighter, pp. 28-31)