Publication of 'Roosevelt vs. Rockefeller'

In December 1908, Ida Tarbell published "Roosevelt vs. Rockefeller," a piece examining the escalating political and legal conflict between President Theodore Roosevelt's antitrust administration and the Standard Oil Company led by John D. Rockefeller. The work reflected the ongoing national drama as federal prosecutors pursued antitrust litigation against Standard Oil, litigation that Tarbell's earlier reporting had helped make politically possible.

This publication showcased Tarbell's continuing engagement with the practical political and legal aftermath of her original investigation. Rather than resting on the fame generated by her 1904 book, she continued to track and analyze the unfolding consequences of the public scrutiny she had helped initiate, including federal enforcement actions and the broader antitrust movement associated with Roosevelt's presidency.

The piece is historically significant as evidence of the direct throughline between investigative journalism and government antitrust action in the Progressive Era. It illustrates how Tarbell functioned not merely as a chronicler of past events but as an active commentator on ongoing national policy debates, reinforcing the real-world political impact of her earlier Standard Oil exposé and cementing her role as a leading public intellectual on corporate power and regulation.