The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists, 1861-1901Prize-winning historian and biographer Matthew Josephson's The Robber Barons is the story of the Gilded Age's giant American capitalists who seized economic power after the Civil War and altered the shape of American life forever. The definitive book on the rise and power of early American capitalists, The Robber Barons examines the careers of such masters of finance and industry as J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, E. H. Harriman, and Henry Clay Frick. In a fascinating narrative, mixing social, economic, and political history, Josephson shows that under the command of these industry titans, the country progressed from a mainly agrarian-mercantile society to an economy propelled predominantly by mass production. "With great verve and a fine sense of its dramatic values, what [Josephson] has written is not a mere series of biographies but a genuine history, with the stories of the great American capitalists skillfully interwoven, and with an eye always on the broader social background."--New York Times Book Review |
Contents
THE NATIONAL CHARACTER | 3 |
WHAT THE YOUNG MEN DREAM | 32 |
OF EMPIREBUILDERS | 50 |
THE WINNING OF THE WEST | 75 |
TWO CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY | 100 |
THE FIGHT FOR ERIE | 121 |
GRANDEURS AND MISERIES OF EMPIREBUILDING | 149 |
RISING FROM THE RUINS | 177 |
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affairs American Andrew Carnegie banker banks bonds brought building capital captains Carnegie Carnegie Steel Company cent Chicago City Cleveland coal Collis Huntington combination Commodore competition construction cost Daniel Drew directors dollars economic enterprise Erie field force freight gold hands Harriman head held Henry Frick Henry Villard Hill House Huntington industrial interests investment iron J. P. Morgan Jay Cooke Jay Gould Jim Fisk John labor land master millions mills monopoly Northern Pacific once partners Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Railroad Pierpont Morgan Pittsburgh political pool possessed President profits purchase rail railroad barons railway rates refiners rival road Rockefeller secret securities sell Senator shares sold soon South Improvement Company Standard Oil tion trade trunk lines Trust Union Pacific Vanderbilt Villard Wall Street Washington West Western whole William Rockefeller York Central young