Robber baron (industrialist)
Robber baron is a term first applied as social criticism by 19th century muckrakers and others to certain wealthy, powerful, and unethical 19th-century American businessmen. The term appeared in that use as early as the August 1870 issue of The Atlantic Monthly[1] magazine. By the late 19th century, the term was typically applied to businessmen who used exploitative practices to amass their wealth.[2] Those practices included unfettered consumption and destruction of natural resources, influencing high levels of government, wage slavery, squashing competition by acquiring their competitors to create monopolies and/or trusts that control the market, and schemes to sell stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors.[2] The term combines the sense of criminal ("robber") and illegitimate aristocracy (“baron”) in a republic.[3]
This article is about the U.S. practice. For the feudal practice, see robber baron (feudalism).(real estate, fur) – New York
John Jacob Astor
(steel) – Pittsburgh and New York
Andrew Carnegie
(finance) – Philadelphia
Jay Cooke
(railroads) – California
Charles Crocker
(oil) – California
Edward L. Doheny
(finance) – New York
Daniel Drew
(tobacco, electric power) – Durham, North Carolina
James Buchanan Duke
(finance) – New York
James Fisk
(steel) – Pittsburgh and New York
Henry Clay Frick
(fuel, coal, steamboats, railroads) – St Paul, Minnesota
James J. Hill
(railroads) – California, Virginia, West Virginia
Collis Potter Huntington
(finance, oil) – Pittsburgh
Andrew Mellon
(finance, industrial consolidation) – New York
J. P. Morgan
(Standard Oil) – Cleveland, Ohio
John D. Rockefeller
(public transit, tobacco) – New York
Thomas Fortune Ryan
(finance, railroads) – New York
Russell Sage
(steel) – Pittsburgh and New York
Charles M. Schwab
(railroads) – California
Leland Stanford
(public transportation) – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Peter Widener
Individuals identified in Josephson's Robber Barons (1934):
Identified as "robber barons" by other sources:
Contemporary:
Business magnate
Business oligarch
Media proprietor
. (2008). Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865–1900 Vintage Books. ISBN 1400032423
Beatty, Jack
Bridges, Hal. (1958) "The Robber Baron Concept in American History" Business History Review (1958) 32#1 pp. 1–13
in JSTOR
Burlingame, D.F. Ed. (2004). Philanthropy in America: A comprehensive historical encyclopaedia (3 vol. ABC Clio).
Cochran, Thomas C. (1949) "The Legend of the Robber Barons." Explorations in Economic History 1#5 (1949) .
online
Fraser, Steve. (2015). The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power . ISBN 0316185434
Little, Brown and Company
Harvey, Charles, et al. "Andrew Carnegie and the foundations of contemporary entrepreneurial philanthropy." Business History 53.3 (2011): 425–450.
online
Jones, Peter d'A. ed. (1968). The Robber Barons Revisited (1968) excerpts from primary and secondary sources.
Marinetto, M. (1999). "The historical development of business philanthropy: Social responsibility in the new corporate economy" Business History 41#4, 1–20.
Ostrower, F. (1995). Why the wealthy give: The culture of elite philanthropy (Princeton UP).
Ostrower, F. (2002). Trustees of culture: Power, wealth and status on elite arts boards (U of Chicago: Press).
Josephson, Matthew. (1934). The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists, 1861–1901
Taylor, Marilyn L.; Robert J. Strom; David O. Renz (2014). . Edward Elgar. pp. 1–8. ISBN 978-1783471010.
Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurs: Engagement in Philanthropy: Perspectives
Wren, D.A. (1983) "American business philanthropy and higher education in the nineteenth century" Business History Review. 57#3 321–346.
. (2005). "Chapter 11: Robber Barons and Rebels" from A People's History of the United States Harper Perennial. ISBN 0060838655
Zinn, Howard
. Moyers & Company. December 19, 2014. Interview with historian Steve Fraser
Full Show: The New Robber Barons
EDSITEment lesson from National Endowment for the Humanities
Industrial Age in America: Robber Barons or Captains of Industry
- Daniel Sheehan, University of California Santa Cruz, "The Trajectory of Justice in America 2019, Class #5"