Ida M. Tarbell's Miscellaneous Publications

Published July 4, 2021

Updated July 18, 2021

Ida M. Tarbell's Miscellaneous Books and Publications

• 1922: "Peacemakers: Blessed and Otherwise"​​​
• 1912: "The Business of Being a Woman" and "The Ways of Woman"​
• ​1898: "Recollections of the Civil War" by Charles A. Dana with Ida Tarbell (ghostwriter)​
• ​1896: "Madame Roland: A Biographical Study"
• 1895: "A Short Life of Napoleon Bonaparte"

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 "Peacemakers: Blessed and Otherwise"

This book should be required reading for the current United States diplomatic corps and the U. S. Secretary of State. As with most of her writings, Ida Tarbell produces timely insights and timeless wisdom into the "Conference on the Limitations of Armaments" held in Washington D. C. in 1922. This book is a compilation of her "observations, reflections and irritations" at the conference as written each week for McClure's Magazine.

She puts down in print so many thoughts that one has to ask whenever there is a conference held that is so critical to the peace and stability of our world. Of the press corps she writes:

• Writers covered up their ignorance of things by doing prophecies, by shrieks of despair, by poses of intimacy with the great, by elaborately spun-out theories.

• There were so many men and women in the field under contract to write, to produce so many words every day or every week. There was no contract that these words should add something to the knowledge of the many things about which it was so necessary for men and women to learn - no contract that they should contribute by ever so little to the great need of control on every side, that they should comfort, soften hates, stimulate common sense.

Of our history of isolationism she writes:

• It may be that the United States does not yet sufficiently understand that the principle of unionism which is its strength is a world principle, that one primary cause of wars in this world is isolation, with its necessity of being suspicious, on guard, ready to strike - like a rattlesnake.
• We {the United States] were coming to our senses, realizing that we are of the world, and if we are to enjoy its fruits, we must bear our share of its burdens; that if we would have peace, the surest way is to use our strength and our good will to guarantee it.

Of disarmament in general and its possibility of success she writes:

• What it all amounted to was that the most drastic limitation [on armaments] was no sure guarantee against future war. Take away a man's gun and it is no guarantee that he will not strike if aroused. You must get at the man - enlarge his respect for order, his contempt for violence, change his notion of procedure in disputes, establish his control. It takes more than "gun toting'' to make a dangerous citizen, more than relieving him of his gun to make a safe one.

​And finally on how one achieves success at such a conference:

• The only system a man can successfully handle is that in which he has faith; the only fair way to judge what he does is by what he undertakes to do - not what you would like him to undertake.

This is another amazing book full of insights into human interactions when we deal with large conferences to better mankind's lot in life - most of which is still true today.

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 "The Business of Being a Woman"

This book was an amazing read. As a former single parent with three children, I found that it validated the time and energy I put into my family. I wish I would have read it then or even later as a step-father, as I know it would have given me a stronger sense of worth and an understanding of my end-goal in raising a family.

​The following are extracts from the book.
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• "The citizen [the child as a member of society] is not prepared by a training in practical politics.  Something more fundamental is required. The meaning of honor and of the sanctity of one's word, the understanding of the principles of democracy and of the society in which we live, the love of humanity, and the desire to serve - these are what make a good citizen."​
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• "The progress of society depends upon getting out of men and women an increasing amount of the powers with which they are born and which bad surroundings at the start blunt or stupefy. This is what all systems of education try to do, but the result of all systems of education depends upon the material that comes to the educator."

• "The most interesting and important thing in the world for you [son/daughter] is to work out your own particular life. ... Nobody else ever stood in your  particular place or ever will stand in one identical. ... You alone can fuse the elements.
  
  ​"Hold your place; do not try to shift into the place that another occupies. Keep your eye on what you have to work with, not on what somebody else has. The ultimate result, the originality, flavor, distinction, usefulness of your life, depend on the care, the reverence, and the intelligence with which you work up and out from where you are and with what you have."

Such statements to me can not be contained within a single century. They are timeless. I know that some women have commented that they found this book archaic and in some way degrading to women. I found it just the opposite.

​To me it validated my worth as a single father who invested everything into building a home with a soul and purpose - as best as a single parent can.

"The Ways of Woman" was published after "The Business of Being a Woman."

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 "Recollections of the Civil War"

This is included in Ida Tarbell's list of books because she was Charles Dana's ghostwriter. Since I am not a Civil War enthusiast, this book contained mildly interesting information until I read that one chapter with my name on it: "Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet."

This was the chapter that made the book worthwhile for me. This chapter was like reading a condensed version of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

​Dana writes, "When Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated as President, his first act was to name his Cabinet; and it was a common remark at the time that he had put into it every man who had competed with him for the [presidential] nomination." 

He then goes on to describe Seward, Stanton, Chase, Welles, Blair and Bates. It was an amazing collection of men and egos that probably only a personality like Lincoln could have turned to an excellent purpose.

The good news is that the second time I "read this book" I will only be reading one chapter.

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 "Madame Roland: A Biographical Study"

This book about Madam Roland has not been read or reviewed by this author. Although it is sitting on the bookshelf, there are so many books ahead of it on the reading list that it may be years before a review is posted.

We do have it though!

Cheers,

​- Pete

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 "A Short Life of Napoleon Bonaparte"

This book about Napoleon has not been read or reviewed by this author. Although it is sitting on the bookshelf, there are so many books ahead of it on the reading list that it may be years before a review is posted.

We do have it though!

Cheers,

​- Pete

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