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Robber Barons And Baron By Howard Zinn Chapter Summary

801 Words4 Pages

Howard Zinn’s unique perspective on American history and the beloved American heroes makes for an interesting story. His book, A People's History of the United States, paints history in a whole new light. While most teachers tell the story of the huge period of wealth and industrialization, the side that Zinn shows in the 11th chapter of his book “Robber Barons and Rebels”, tells of the poor being taken advantage of while the rich prospered in the late 1800 and early 1900s. He also uses other like-minded historians like Brandeis and Commons and historical events such as the Sherman Anti-Trust act, the murders in Rock Springs, technological advances like the Bessemer process to support his claims. These claims are that the industrial and political …show more content…

Zinn’s views are controversial, but with the many direct quotes by renowned historians, it makes his point more accountable. Zinn begins his meaningful chapter, by detailing the gradual increase of innovations that make life easier, for example the Bessemer process to speed up iron-processing, machines that sped up the wheat harvest, and technology that led to the boom of the meat packing industry. However, with these innovations, industrial elites, like Edison and Drew began bribing legislators to gain more wealth. This bribery led to the corruption at the governmental level, which ultimately led to the beginning of the rich taking advantage of bribery. During the Civil War, this became especially prominent as rich whites like Rockefeller and Carnegie started to pay for the lower class to fight for them, as they were far superior than the lower classes. Supreme Court Justice, and the author of Other People’s Money, Brandeis, best told of the belief at the time period, he stated that the richer people learned that “they control …show more content…

The wealthy received special treatment, while the rest suffered. Zinn continues with the event following the Sherman Anti-Trust Act being passed. The act was supposed to attack monopolies however, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the elites and the bill was nullified, however it made it applicable to the workers striking for better job treatment. More and more workers began flooding the states due to the railroads and railroad construction. For example, railroads brought in so many Chinese workers to build the tracks that 1/10 the Californian population was Chinese by 1880. These Chinese were treated with extreme violence and prejudice, there was even an incident where 28 miners were attacked and killed in Rock Springs, Wyoming, in 1885. The rest, were just given enough to survive, and work. This taking advantage of immigrant workers highlights Zinn’s thesis that elites caused economic growth at the expense of immigrant labor. Commons wrote in his History of the

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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.

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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.

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After the Civil War, the Second Industrial Revolution was established due to America’s rapid growth for industry and economics. Capitalists during the industrial period of 1875-1900’s were either accused of being a robber baron or a captain of industry. Some capitalists leaders who were accused of being a robber baron or captain of industry included J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Andrew W. Mellon, and John D. Rockefeller. A robber baron is a business leader who gets rich through cruel and scandalous business practices. The captains of industry is a business leader who wants to better the companies in a way that it would be positively contributing to the country.

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At the end of the 19th Century, as the United States was experiencing rapid industrialization, a reconfiguration of the social order yielded opposing visions of social progress. Andrew Carnegie, wealthy businessman, and Jane Addams, founder of Chicago’s Hull House, put forward different methods to achieve such progress, where Addams focuses on creating social capital in a seemingly horizontal manner while Carnegie advocates for a top-down approach. While both of them seem to reap a sense of purpose from their attempts to improve the nation, their approaches vary depending on their vision of the composition of the population they want to uplift. First, Carnegie and Addams’ desire to improve society is partly self-serving. For Carnegie, improving society is the role of the wealthy man who, “animated by Christ’s spirit” (“Wealth”), can administer wealth for the community better than it could have for itself (“Wealth”).

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Zinn claims most of the wealth belonged to the upper class, and the elite made much more improvement than the lower class. To prove his point, he uses statistics such as: “one-tenth of one percent of the families at the top received as much income as 42 percent of the families at the bottom” (Zinn 382). Moreover, to show the dreadful state of the lower class, he recounts, “every year in the 1920s, about 25,000 workers were killed on the job and 100,000 permanently disabled. Two million people in New York City lived in tenements condemned as firetraps” (Zinn 382-383). In contrast, Schweikart and Zinn claim the economic deterioration was a myth and American industry

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Throughout the years, individuals have learned U.S. History through the perspective of the governments, leaders, the conqueror. However, through Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, the reader saw a different perspective. They saw the views of slaves, of women, of the underdogs. This was Zinn’s purpose for writing A People’s History of the United States, to show the reader the other side of historical events, because too much of history is written by the elite. The thesis that seems to be maintained throughout is that the minority shaped America to what it is today.

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Likewise, many wealthy people, including big business leaders, came to realize that it was their role in society was to give back. Due to all the negative responses, people such as Andrew Carnegie were huge philanthropists . They stated that because they were wealthy and were better inclined than most, they should be willing to help those at the bottom. Andrew Carnegie’s, Gospel of Wealth, explicitly stated how the wealthy have a moral obligation to give back (Outside Evidence). Other major responses to changes and the impact of big business were responses from the government.

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1）In Howard Zinn’s “A people’s History of the United Stated,” he puts more attention on the event of how Columbus invaded the new continent and impacted native Americans through opinions how Columbus and others people like victims and follower thought about Columbus’s behavior. First of all, Zinn describes Arawak Indians and their similarities to other indigenous people of the continent, and he then explained invaders’ explorations into historical, political, and economic fields. Zinn emphasizes the relative hospitality and peacefulness of Indians and the cruelty Europeans exercise in their quest for gold. Furthermore, Zinn states how the number of Indians’ population dropped down rapidly because of enslavement, violence, and disease.

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Howard Zinn discussed the actuality of Colonial America, in which the wealthy handled poor whites, black slaves, and Native Americans as undesirables. Zinn’s thesis was the idea of plutocracy, government by the wealthy, controlling American society. Class lines hardened, distinctions between rich and poor became sharper. Wealth equated to power, slaves, and estate subsequently, fortifying their superiority over the disadvantaged. This inequality of wealth and power caused disapprobation among the impoverished populace and defiances such as Bacon’s Rebellion undertook.

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The Gilded Age was an age of rapid economic growth. Railroads, factories, and mines were slowly popping up across the country, creating a variety of new opportunities for entrepreneurs and laborers alike. These new inventions and opportunities created “...an unprecedented accumulation of wealth” (GML, 601). But the transition of America from a small farming based nation to a powerful industrial one created a huge rift between social classes. Most people were either filthy rich or dirt poor, with workers being the latter.

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Undoubtedly, America has confronted many adversities throughout its history. Moreover, during the course of these challenges America prevailed, and ultimately formed a nation that has the ability to continuously adapt. There exists a myriad of examples that would support this claim; however, this essay will focus on four major events occurring between the 1860’s and 1920’s. The first event is how the American social status changed before and after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. The second event is how the Civil War played a role in creating a need for Reconstruction, and how Reconstruction culminated in the Industrial Revolution.

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Howard Zinn’s unique perspective on American history and the beloved American heroes makes for an interesting story. His book, A People's History of the United States, paints history in a whole new light. The ninth chapter of his book, “Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation without Freedom” discusses the abolition of slavery in America and its effect and ulterior motives; it benefitted the elite, while not strictly freeing the slaves. He uses other like-minded historians, key people, and key events to prove his claims. His claims that the government’s support of slavery was due to practicality, and by ending it there was a safe and profitable reconstruction, rather than a radical one.

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The saying that history repeats itself has been proven to be true time and time again. History seems to be doomed to repeat itself as if lessons were never learned from past mistakes. The Gilded Age is a unique period in American history that is undoubtedly repeating itself in the modern day. Corruption, unprecedented immigration, and the massing of wealth by the top 1% of the population are just a few of the things that characterize this period of American history. The same issues that plagued America over 100 years ago are re-emerging in todays’ society leading scholars to say that America has arrived in “The Second Gilded Age”.

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In chapter one in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States historical issues such as Columbus’ voyages to the Americas, Cortes’ conquest of the Aztec civilization, Pizarro’s conquest of the Incan civilization, and the English colonization of the North American east coast were discussed. Furthermore, Zinn explains these events in a new dialect and does not sugar-coat any of the actions or the Westerners as many historians and history textbooks do today.

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History should remember the entrepreneurs of the 1800’s and 1900’s as Captains of Industries or Robber Barons. These entrepreneurs

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