The History of Standard Oil exposed the corruption in the company Standard Oil. Standard Oil started and run by John D. Rockefeller, a man who eventually became the richest man in history. In her book, Tarbell accussed Rockefeller of using unfair tactics to monopolize and put small oil company competitors out of business. For example, one competitor of Standard Oil tried to build an oil pipline, but was denied by a railroad company that was under the control of Standard to build on railroad land. This forced the company to put the oil in barrels, cart it accrross the land then in barrels, cart it accrross the land then manually pump it into the other end of the pipeline. Rockefeller then ordered the railroad company to park empty carts on the railroads, making it impossible for the oil to reach the pipeline. STandard Oil made deals with many railroad companies that gave them much lower rates then all of their competitors as well, a practice which later lead to the companies undoing.
The History of Standard Oil was credited with making the breakup of Standard Oil happen more quickly. In 1991, the US Supreme Court ordered Standard Oil to be broken up into smaller companies. Some examples of these smaller companies are Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
