cover image The Rockefeller Century

The Rockefeller Century

John Ensor Harr. Scribner Book Company, $0 (621pp) ISBN 978-0-684-18936-9

Much of this long, adulatory account of the Rockefeller family's philanthropic activity reads like an after-dinner speech. Harr, a vice-president of ABC-TV, was a member of John D. Rockefeller III's staff for over a decade, and historian Johnson is identified here as ``a Rockefeller family associate.'' Their narrative focuses on three Rockefellers: John D. ``Senior'' (1839-1937), who created Standard Oil; his only son, John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960), who overcame a domineering father and renounced business pursuits to devote himself to philanthropy; and his eldest son, JDR III (1906-78), who has been overshadowed by his more famous brothers. The authors do not delve deeply into the trio's motives for funding specific projects, but they do describe a vast array of activities and institutions subsidized by Rockefeller wealthMargaret Sanger's birth-control research, the training of Chinese doctors, the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, population control and the development of the Manhattan theater complex Lincoln Center, to name a few. (June)