Ida Minerva Tarbell (Nov 5, 1857 – Jan 6, 1944) was an American writer, investigative journalist, biographer and lecturer. Born in Pennsylvania at the onset of the oil boom, Tarbell is best known for her 1904 book The History of the Standard Oil Company. The book was published as a series of articles in McClure's Magazine from 1902 to 1904. It has been called a "masterpiece of investigative journalism", by historian J. North Conway, as well as "the single most influential book on business ever published in the United States" by historian Daniel Yergin. The work would contribute to the dissolution of the Standard Oil monopoly and helped usher in the Hepburn Act of 1906, the Mann-Elkins Act, the creation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Clayton Antitrust Act. She wrote biographies on businessmen Elbert Henry Gary, chairman of U.S. Steel, as well as Owen D. Young, president of General Electric Less