Blog #72 – Robber Barons or Captains of Industry
The robber barons / captains of industry are the way that the 19th Century industrialists have been portrayed throughout the past 150 years. Much of it depends upon the school of history that’s doing the interpretation.
The robber barons is a negative portrayal of people like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt who were ruthless and vindictive. They took over other businesses in a cruel manner and forced thousands of workers to work in terrible conditions and for low pay like Carnegie. 
They limited competition by buying other industries and ruthlessly crushing other companies. There were crooks like Jim Fisk and Jay Gould who tried cornering the gold market in 1869. They also printed phony RR stocks in order to defraud investors. RR magnate Jay Cooke boasted of how awesome the land next to his Northern Pacific RR was, but when investors bowed out of his scheme, his bank collapsed, triggering the Panic of 1873.
The captains of industry is a positive portrayal of industrialists shows these men as ingenuous, industrious, and fulfilling the American Dream. Some of these men like Carnegie and Rockefeller were lauded for their philanthropy. They exemplified the best of capitalism. These captains pushed America into the modern age, made products affordable, and could have exploited their monopolies by high prices but didn’t. J.P. Morgan was so powerful that he could have trashed the American economy and part of the world’s economy along with it if he so chose to, but he didn’t. In fact, when he died, America created the Federal Reserve Bank, its third and current attempt at a central bank.
Use the website below to research some of the major industrialists.
Your job: Analyze the discussion above and come up with your own analysis – which do you think fits the time period best? Is it a combo? Explain.
