The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private. This item is unavailable.The Rockefeller Conscience: An American Family in Public and in Private

Surveys the history of the Rockefeller family from 1952 to the present, describing the public uses of the family's wealth and the private dramas shaping those uses

In The Rockefeller Century (1988), Harr and Johnson paid lengthy if uncritical tribute to the philanthropies of three successive John D. Rockefellers. Picking up where they left off, the authors now use the career of JDR III as the centerpiece of another prolonged testimonial that advances the family chronicle from the early 1950's, when JDR, Jr., retired, to the 1978 death of his namesake. As before, Harr and Johnson (both former Rockefeller aides) have had exclusive access to private archival sources, plus the cooperation of surviving family members. Once again, however, their labors result in a deadly earnest recital in which JDR III plays second fiddle to his own good intentions, idiosyncratic benefactions, and quotidian routines. Nor do the authors probe their protagonist's apparently complex ties to either his higher- profile brothers (David, Laurence, Nelson, Winthrop) or other kin. Nonetheless, even a short list of the worthy causes to which JDR III committed himself and his inherited wealth is impressive. Among other activities, he was a motive force in Asia Society, Colonial Williamsburg, Lincoln Center, and Population Council. While Harr and Johnson provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of how large foundations operate on a workaday basis, of the ways in which trusts can be structured to ensure that future generations remain moneyed, and of what happens when unanticipated economic or fiscal developments leave the genuinely affluent short of cash, they provide more detail than insight. Beyond postulating a sense of stewardship, moreover, the authors largely fail to clarify what factors impelled JDR III (albeit not his siblings) to devote himself to a form of public service. A reckoning not without interest, then, but one that celebrates and commemorates without illuminating its subject. (Twenty-four pages of illustrations--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The Rockefellers' philanthropy was not a means of assuaging guilt sustained by the family's accumulation of great wealth. This "insider" biography chronicles the postwar activities of the Rockefeller brothers in order to demonstrate how the high moral values of the first John D. passed to the modern Rockefellers, who were imbued with a sense of stewardship, obligation, and service. As with their previous volume, The Rockefeller Century ( LJ 5/1/88), Harr and Johnson utilize family documents and financial accounts not generally available. The result is a work of deliberate detail and a portrait of this family's substantial influence upon the shape of postwar corporate and governmental culture. It must stand for some time as authoritative. Both volumes should be included in most public and academic libraries.
- Susan E. Parker, Harvard Law Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.