Founders Fire – Arthur Herman (1)

“We will utilize your ability, we will give you representation; we will build a substantial structure on the basis of cooperation.” Rockefeller never insisted on a knock-down price, even with competitors on the brink of failure. “He treated everyone fairly,” one oil man remembered. “When we sold out, he gave us a fair price.” That included fair wages to workmen Rockefeller wanted to keep on: He knew that good employees were one of the keys to success.

So were good partners. Like any smart founder, Rockefeller surrounded himself with partners he could trust and who shared his vision of Standard Oil. They included Sam Andrews and also Henry Flagler, and John’s brother William: “It is chiefly to my confidence in men and my ability to inspire their confidence in me that I owe my success in life.”48 As 1880 dawned, Standard Oil had driven the price of kerosene down to eight cents per gallon.

Standard Oil had captured 90 percent of the American market. Yet the market was in trouble. The Pennsylvania fields were drying up; foreign competition from the oil fields at Baku in Imperial Russia threatened to undercut the price of oil globally. Rockefeller then took on the biggest gamble of his life. He turned to the oil fields in Lima, Ohio, with their high sulfur content, and invested millions of his own money to find ways to make the oil refinable at a reasonable price.

Even his partners thought he was crazy. But his gamble paid off. The new Ohio oil fields enabled Rockefeller to take on, and defeat, the Russian oil challenge—not only because he was able to provide a lower price even while shipping overseas but also because the label “Standard Oil” suggested high quality. From 1882 to 1891, the Standard Oil trust controlled two-thirds of the world’s oil trade, with each barrel selling for a single Liberty Head nickel.49 Rockefeller’s company was now not just a fundamental part of the American economy; it was also an integral part of the world economy.

Copyright © 2026 by Arthur Herman Jacket design by Faceout Studio Jacket copyright © 2026 by Hachette Book Group, Inc. Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected].

Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Center Street Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104 centerstreet.com @CenterStreet First Edition: April 2026 Center Street is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Center Street name and logo are registered trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. Center Street books may be purchased in bulk for business, educational, or promotional use. For information, please contact your local bookseller or the Hachette Book Group Special Markets Department at [email protected]. All photographs are sourced from Wikimedia Commons and/or are in the public domain unless otherwise noted. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for. ISBN: 9781546011293 (hardcover), 9781546011316 (ebook) E3-20260223-JV-NF-ORI OceanofPDF.com CONTENTS COVER TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT DEDICATION EPIGRAPH PREFACE INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1.

Start-Up Nation: Founding Fathers Do the Impossible and Risk It All CHAPTER 2. 1787: Founding a More Perfect Union CHAPTER 3. Founders, Pioneers, and Compromisers: From the American System to the Kansas-Nebraska Act CHAPTER 4. The Fire of Genius: Abraham Lincoln Confronts the Founders CHAPTER 5. “The Work of Giants”: Tycoons, Founders, and Robber Barons in America’s Gilded Age CHAPTER 6.

Inventors: Fueling the Fire of Genius CHAPTER 7. To Make America Safe: Founders, Engineers, and Production Men in Two World Wars CHAPTER 8. Managers, Metrics, and the Rise of the Rust Belt CHAPTER 9. Revolution! From Semiconductors to the Internet CHAPTER 10. Toward the Limitless Horizon: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the New Golden Age CONCLUSION. Founder Nation ACKNOWLEDGMENTS DISCOVER MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR BOOKS BY ARTHUR HERMAN NOTES OceanofPDF.com For Beth, love of my life and my guiding star, always OceanofPDF.com Explore book giveaways, sneak peeks, deals, and more.

Tap here to learn more. OceanofPDF.com If you will go with us, you must go against wind and tide. —John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress OceanofPDF.com W PREFACE hen I sat down to write this book, I wanted to give readers a new way to see what is happening today in our country, a new way to understand our history as a nation, and a new way to look at ourselves.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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