Ida Tarbell is best known today as the investigative journalist whose pieces on workings of the Standard Oil Company led to the creation of the Federal Trade Commission and the Clayton Antitrust Act. She was also an acclaimed biographer, known for her extensive works on the lives of Lincoln and Napoleon. Her research is exhaustive, and her prose is brisk and engaging. This biography finishes with an 115 page "sketch" of the Empress Josephine. - Summary by Ciufi Galeazzi