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Napoleon of Wall Street J.P. Morgan was the most influential person in mid 1800 - early 1900s. He became the most powerful man in america who was only challenged by Andrew Carnegie and J.D. Rockefeller, together these men are worth 1 trillion dollars in today’s money - that's more than the top 40% combined wealth today. Morgan saved the US government twice - really he saved American business twice. He took the over expanded railroad and made it profitable, took Edison’s D.C. current and Tessa’s A.C. current combining them into General Electric lighting homes across America, bought Andrew Carnegie's steel business making into US Steel hoisting the company profit to 1 billion - for the first time in American history. J. Pierpont Morgan was
His work, The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy, allows readers to see a more picture perfect outlook on what the lives of these men entitled. Morris’s book was published in 2005, which allows readers to get a perspective from a long period of time and closer to reality rather than other historians writing on this era. The last author that allows readers to view the Robber Barons in a different manor is James Nuechterlein in his journal article Gifts of the “Robber Barons.” Nuechterlein wrote this article in 2007 allowing readers to view the men through historical resources that he uncovered. His stance shows a more balanced approach to the Robber Barons rather than saying one or the other was a better man than the other.
Robbers of Industry: Exploring Rockefeller's Case of This False Binary Looking at Google Search trend data shows that the person most associated with the term ‘robber baron’ is business tycoon John D. Rockefeller. Interestingly enough, however, is that the same is true for the term ‘captain of industry’ (Google Trends). To this day, the legacy of Gilded age business leaders like Rockefeller is conflicted, with people struggling to decide whether they were captains of industry, a robber barons, or both. Rockefeller's case, however, is most conflicting given the enormous impacts he had, both good and bad, by improving quality of life but decreasing competition in the industry.
Robber barons, specifically Andrew Carnegie, an industrialist and John D. Rockefeller, a philanthropist, were the chosen, elite members of society according to the doctrine of Social Darwinism. Darwinism is when evolution occurs and the strongest organisms of an ecosystem survive and reproduce to outnumber the weaker, less fit organisms of an ecosystem. Similarly Social Darwinism follows the same concept, but in a capitalist sense of thought. Those who were able to exploit the Gilded Age’s laissez faire economy to their own benefit, like the robber barons Andrew Carnegie of Carnegie Steel and J. D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, were the fittest members of society because they were able to survive in the grueling and ruthless free economy. By usurping all of the fresh yet unfit immigrants that were flowing into the States due to the rise of urbanization, these two men integrated these easily-manipulated people into their factories to augment their profits.
The captains of industry believed that the poor people were inferior to the rich people. The rich were superior because they had “wisdom, experience, and the ability to administer”. The duty of a rich person was to help out a poor person which was what was said in the Gospel of Wealth. The Gospel of Wealth is about how the rich person's responsibility is philanthropy. Carnegie believes in charity work so he would donate to libraries, and universities and schools and etc.
In the novel, “The Tycoons” by Charles R. Morris, he explains how Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan invented the American super economy. In Morris’s novel, he goes in depth of the lives of these men and the experiences that truly made them the group who transformed America’s economy. They transformed the greatest industries of our time: oil, rail, steel, and finance. Not only did they transform America for the better but are also the first captains of industry. I will start with J.P. Morgan who was an art collector, banker, and financier.
Andrew Carnegie had a very large impact on the making of America. He was born on November 25, 1835, and died on August 11, 1919. Carnegie had a wife, Louise Whitfield Carnegie, and a daughter, Margaret Carnegie Miller. In the early stages of Carnegie’s life, he wasn’t very wealthy, in fact, he was the complete opposite. By age 54, he had turned his life around with the help of his invention of steel.
Morgan began to get power hungry, as he did not want to be confined to just one company; he wanted to own them all. Morgan was head of the largest investment bank in the world and this gave him unrivaled power and influence with everything that had to do with money. (Source 4) Morgan at one stage used his personal funds to bail out the federal government, saving the American economy from a complete collapse. (Source 5) Morgan created a concept called ‘morganisation’, (Source 7) the idea behind it was to bring together competitive industries to maximise profits, and he began to reconstruct companies and eliminating expenses and maximising profits over everything else. This created a trend in big business and
During the industrial revolution, leaders of industrialism were brilliant, innovated, and ambitious men who rejuvenated the American economy decades after the Civil War. Andrew Carnegie is one of these industrial leaders who had a positive impact on society. He is considered to be a true “captain of industry” (Shi, "Robber Barons") , not just because of the businesses he developed, but because of his desire to better society for all people and not just for himself (Shi, "Robber Barons"). Carnegie believed that those of mass wealth should make a moral choice to make it their responsibility to share their wealth for the utilitarianism of society. 1.)
Underpinnings and Effectiveness of Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” In Andrew Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth”, Carnegie proposed a system of which he thought was best to dispose of “surplus wealth” through progress of the nation. Carnegie wanted to create opportunities for people “lift themselves up” rather than directly give money to these people. This was because he considered that giving money to these people would be “improper spending”.
Carnegie’s views on the treatment of his workers are one of the things that he did that are considered unethical. For instance, during America’s depression in the early 1800’s, Carnegie’s workers were repeatedly asked to work long hours for little play; many unions resisted, particularly in the Homestead Strike of 1892. In the Homestead Strike, workers were angry about pay cuts and Carnegie’s
Barons such as Andrew Carnegie, J.P Morgan, and John Rockefeller dominated the country through the enormous wealth that they amassed. The power that these individuals wielded was unfathomable. They even bought the presidency. It was through their combined might that William McKinley was elected. This pushed their power and wealth to even greater heights.
The late nineteenth century was a pivotal moment in American history. During this time, the Industrial Revolution transformed the nation, railroads had dissipated all throughout the country, and economic classes began to form, separating the wealthy from the poor. One of the wealthiest men of this generation was Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who fled to America to make millions off the railroad, oil and even steel businesses. Carnegie is considered one of the richest men in history, and even with all that wealth he decided to give back to the community. As a matter of fact, Carnegie donated most of his funds to charities, universities and libraries in his last few years.
In the past, there have been many influential economic figures in the industrial business industry. Andrew Carnegie is one of the most famous of these figures but not just in a business scheme, but also in an economic and national scheme. Andrew Carnegie is a business man that caused a major controversial issue to arise; the topic of being labeled a Robber Baron or a Captain of Industry by the public. A Robber Baron is someone who has become wealthy through heartless and unethical business actions that will only benefit the individual. On the other hand, a Captain of Industry is a business leader who has become rich by accomplishing activities that will, overall, benefit the people of the community such as expanding a market or providing more jobs.
History should remember the entrepreneurs of the 1800’s and 1900’s as Captains of Industries or Robber Barons. These entrepreneurs
