Robber baron ( industrialist ) - wikipedia Robber baron ( industrialist ) For other uses, see Robber baron ( disambiguation ). `` The protectors of our industries ''. Cartoon showing Cyrus Field, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Russell Sage, seated on bags of `` millions '', on large heavy raft being carried by workers. Let Them Have It All, And Be Done With It ! ( 1882 ) : A satirical cartoon from the German language edition of Puck Magazine, critical of those who are carving up the country for their own benefit. `` Robber baron '' is a derogatory metaphor of social criticism originally applied to certain late 19th - century American businessmen who used unscrupulous methods to get rich. Contents 1 Usage 2 Criticism 2.1 1860s -- 1920s 2.2 1930s -- 1970s 3 Recent approaches 4 Philanthropy 5 List of businessmen labelled as robber barons 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Usage The term robber baron derives from the Raubritter ( robber knights ), the medieval German lords who charged nominally illegal tolls ( unauthorized by the Holy Roman Emperor ) on the primitive roads crossing their lands or larger tolls along the Rhine river -- all without adding anything of value, but instead lining their pockets at the cost of the common good ( rent seeking ). The metaphor appeared as early as February 9, 1859, when The New York Times used it to characterize the unethical business practices by Cornelius Vanderbilt. Historian T.J. Stiles says the metaphor, `` conjures up visions of titanic monopolists who crushed competitors, rigged markets, and corrupted government. In their greed and power, legend has it, they held sway over a helpless democracy. '' Charles R. Geisst says, `` in a Darwinist age, Vanderbilt developed a reputation as a plunderer who took no prisoners. '' Hal Bridges said that the term represented the idea that `` business leaders in the United States from about 1865 to 1900 were, on the whole, a set of avaricious rascals who habitually cheated and robbed investors and consumers, corrupted government, fought ruthlessly among themselves, and in general carried on predatory activities comparable to those of the robber barons of medieval Europe. '' The term combines the pejorative senses of criminal ( `` robber '' ) and aristocrat ( `` barons '' having no legitimate role in a republic ). Hostile cartoonists might dress the offenders in royal garb to underscore the offense against democracy. Criticism Historian Richard White argues that the builders of the transcontinental railroads have attracted a great deal of attention but the interpretations are contradictory : at first very hostile and then very favorable. At first, White says, they were depicted as : Robber Barons, standing for a Gilded Age of corruption, monopoly, and rampant individualism. Their corporations were the Octopus, devouring all in its path. In the twentieth century and the twenty - first they became entrepreneurs, necessary business revolutionaries, ruthlessly changing existing practices and demonstrating the protean nature of American capitalism. Their new corporations also transmuted and became manifestations of the `` Visible Hand, '' a managerial rationality that eliminated waste, increased productivity, and brought bourgeois values to replace those of financial buccaneers. 1860s -- 1920s Historian John Tipple has examined the writings of the 50 most influential analysts who used the robber baron model in the 1865 - 1914 period. He argues : The originators of the Robber Baron concept were not the injured, the poor, the faddists, the jealous, or a dispossessed elite, but rather a frustrated group of observers led at last by protracted years of harsh depression to believe that the American dream of abundant prosperity for all was a hopeless myth... Thus the creation of the Robber Baron stereotype seems to have been the product of an impulsive popular attempt to explain the shift in the structure of American society in terms of the obvious. Rather than make the effort to understand the intricate processes of change, most critics appeared to slip into the easy vulgarizations of the `` devil - view '' of history which ingenuously assumes that all human misfortunes can be traced to the machinations of an easily located set of villains - in this case, the big businessmen of America. This assumption was clearly implicit in almost all of the criticism of the period. 1930s -- 1970s American historian Matthew Josephson further popularized the term during the Great Depression in a 1934 book. Josephson alleged that, like the German princes, American big businessmen amassed huge fortunes immorally, unethically, and unjustly. The theme was popular during the 1930s amid public scorn for big business. Historian Steve Fraser says the mood was sharply hostile toward big business : Biographies of Mellon, Carnegie and Rockefeller were often laced with moral censure, warning that `` tories of industry '' were a threat to democracy and that parasitism, aristocratic pretension and tyranny have always trailed in the wake of concentrated wealth, whether accumulated dynastically or more impersonally by the faceless corporation. This scholarship, and the cultural persuasion of which it was an expression, drew on a deeply rooted sensibility -- partly religious, partly egalitarian and democratic -- that stretched back to William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Jackson and Tom Paine. However a counterattack by academic historians began as the Depression ended. Business historian Allan Nevins challenged this view of American big businessmen by advocating the `` Industrial Statesman '' thesis. Nevins, in his John D. Rockefeller : The Heroic Age of American Enterprise ( 2 vols., 1940 ), took on Josephson. He argued that while Rockefeller may have engaged in some unethical and illegal business practices, this should not overshadow his bringing order to the industrial chaos of the day. Gilded Age capitalists, according to Nevins, sought to impose order and stability on competitive business, and that their work made the United States the foremost economy by the 20th century. In 1958 Bridges reported that, `` The most vehement and persistent controversy in business history has been that waged by the critics and defenders of the `` robber baron '' concept of the American businessman. '' Richard White, historian of the transcontinental railroads, stated in 2011 he has no use for the concept, which has been killed off by historians Robert Wiebe and Alfred Chandler. He notes that `` Much of the modern history of corporations is a reaction against the Robber Barons and fictions. '' Recent approaches In the popular culture the metaphor continues. In 1975 the student body of Stanford University voted to use `` Robber Barons '' as the nickname for their sports teams. However, school administrators disallowed it, saying it was disrespectful to the school 's founder, Leland Stanford. In academe, the education division of the National Endowment for the Humanities has prepared a lesson plan for schools asking whether `` robber baron '' or `` captain of industry '' is the better terminology. They state : In this lesson, you and your students will attempt to establish a distinction between robber barons and captains of industry. Students will uncover some of the less honorable deeds as well as the shrewd business moves and highly charitable acts of the great industrialists and financiers. It has been argued that only because such people were able to amass great amounts of capital could our country become the world 's greatest industrial power. Some of the actions of these men, which could only happen in a period of economic laissez faire, resulted in poor conditions for workers, but in the end, may also have enabled our present day standard of living. This debate about the morality of certain business practices has continued in the popular culture, as in the performances in Europe in 2012 by Bruce Springsteen, who sang about bankers as `` greedy thieves '' and `` robber barons ''. During the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011, the term was used by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in his attacks on Wall Street. He said `` We believe in this country ; we love this country ; and we will be damned if we 're going to see a handful of robber barons control the future of this country. '' The business practices and political power of the billionaires of Silicon Valley has also led to their identification as robber barons. The metaphor has also been used to characterize Russian businessmen allied to Vladimir Putin. Philanthropy Rich industrialists in the U.S. have been major factors in philanthropy, funding and often starting many of the nation 's universities, museums, hospitals and other private institutions. Andrew Carnegie was the spokesman for the `` Gospel of Wealth '' whereby it was the duty of the rich to use the money for philanthropy. He founded around 3,000 libraries in U.S., his native Britain, and the British Empire, as well as several research and educational centers including Carnegie Institute of Technology. Rockefeller retired from business in the 1890s and spent his last 40 years making large - scale national philanthropy systematic especially regarding medicine, education and scientific research. His top advisor Frederick Taylor Gates designed several very large philanthropies that were staffed by experts who designed ways to attack problems systematically rather than let the recipients decide how to deal with the problem. Albert Shaw, editor of the magazine Review of Reviews in 1893, examined philanthropic activities of millionaires in several major cities. The highest rate was Baltimore where 49 % of the millionaires were active givers ; New York City ranked last. Cincinnati millionaires favored musical and artistic ventures ; Minneapolis millionaires gave to the state university and the public library ; Philadelphians often gave to overseas relief, and the education of blacks and Indians. Boston had a weak profile, apart from donations to Harvard and the Massachusetts General Hospital. List of businessmen labelled as robber Barons 1901 US cartoon from Puck depicting John D. Rockefeller as a powerful monarch. The people here are listed in Josephson, Robber Barons or in the cited source, John Jacob Astor ( real estate, fur ) -- New York Andrew Carnegie ( steel ) -- Pittsburgh and New York William A. Clark ( copper ) -- Butte, Montana Jay Cooke ( finance ) -- Philadelphia Charles Crocker ( railroads ) -- California Daniel Drew ( finance ) -- New York James Buchanan Duke ( tobacco, electric power ) -- Durham, North Carolina James Dunsmuir ( coal, lumber ) - Victoria, BC Canada Marshall Field ( retail ) -- Chicago James Fisk ( finance ) -- New York Henry Morrison Flagler ( Standard Oil, railroads ) -- New York and Florida Henry Clay Frick ( steel ) -- Pittsburgh and New York John Warne Gates ( barbed wire, oil ) -- Texas Jay Gould ( railroads ) -- New York Edward Henry Harriman ( railroads ) -- New York James J. Hill ( fuel, coal, steamboats, railroads ) - St Paul, Minnesota Charles T. Hinde ( railroads, water transport, shipping, hotels ) -- Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, California Mark Hopkins ( railroads ) -- California Collis Potter Huntington ( railroads ) -- California Lars Kovala ( land speculator, railroads ) -- California, Wisconsin, Michigan Andrew W. Mellon ( finance, oil ) -- Pittsburgh J.P. Morgan ( finance, industrial consolidation ) -- New York John Cleveland Osgood ( coal mining, iron ) -- Colorado Henry B. Plant ( railroads ) -- Florida William Randolph Hearst ( Media mogul ) - California John D. Rockefeller ( Standard Oil ) -- Cleveland, New York Henry Huttleston Rogers ( Standard Oil ; copper ), New York. Charles M. Schwab ( steel ) -- Pittsburgh and New York Joseph Seligman ( banking ) -- New York John D. Spreckels ( water transport, railroads, sugar ) -- California Leland Stanford ( railroads ) -- California Cornelius Vanderbilt ( water transport, railroads ) -- New York Charles Tyson Yerkes ( street railroads ) -- Chicago See also Business magnate Media proprietor Burton W. Folsom Jr. References Jump up ^ `` A Romance of the New Era ''. Harper 's New Monthly Magazine. LXXXIX ( DXXXIV ). November 1894. Retrieved 2009 - 07 - 10. Jump up ^ T.J. Stiles, `` Robber Barons or Captains of Industry ? '' History Now Jump up ^ Charles R. Geisst ( 1997 ). Wall Street : A History. Oxford UP. p. 77. Jump up ^ Hal Bridges, `` The robber baron concept in American history. '' Business History Review 32 # 1 ( 1958 ) : 1 - 13, page 1. Jump up ^ Worth Robert Miller, Populist cartoons : an illustrated history of the third - party movement in the 1890s ( 2011 ) p. 13 Jump up ^ Richard White ( 2011 ). Railroaded : The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. W.W. Norton. p. 230. Jump up ^ John Tipple, `` The anatomy of prejudice : Origins of the robber baron legend. '' Business History Review 33 # 4 ( 1959 ) : 510 - 523, quoting pp 510, 521. Jump up ^ Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons : The Great American Capitalists, 1861 -- 1901, New York : Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934. Jump up ^ Steve Fraser, `` The Misunderstood Robber Baron : On Cornelius Vanderbilt : T.J. Stiles 's The First Tycoon is a gilded portrait of the robber baron Cornelius Vanderbilt, '' The Nation Nov. 11, 2009 Jump up ^ Allan Nevins, John D. Rockefeller : The Heroic Age of American Enterprise, 2 vols., New York, C. Scribner 's sons, 1940. Jump up ^ Bridges, `` The robber baron concept in American history. '' p 1 Jump up ^ Richard White, Railroaded : The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America ( 2011 ) pp xxxi, 234, 508 Jump up ^ John R. Thelin, `` California and the Colleges, '' California Historical Quarterly ( 1977 ) 56 # 2 pp 140 -- 63 at p 149. Jump up ^ `` The Industrial Age in America : Robber Barons and Captains of Industry '' EDSITEment ! The Best of the humanities on the web. '' Jump up ^ Erik Kirschbaum, `` Bruce Springsteen : Bankers Are ' Greedy Thieves ' '' Reuters May 31, 2012 Jump up ^ Bernie Sanders ( 2015 ). Outsider in the White House. Verso Books. p. 278. Jump up ^ Hanson, Victor Davis ( 17 August 2017 ). `` Silicon Valley Billionaires Are the New Robber Barons ''. Retrieved 30 August 2017. Jump up ^ Motley, Seton ( 31 July 2017 ). `` Silicon Valley Robber Barons Are Using Government As A Weapon Against Us ''. Retrieved 30 August 2017. Jump up ^ David O. Whitten, `` Russian robber barons : Moscow business, American style. '' European Journal of Law and Economics 13 # 3 ( 2002 ) : 193 - 201. Jump up ^ Marilyn L. Taylor ; Robert J. Strom ; David O. Renz ( 2014 ). Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurs : Engagement in Philanthropy : Perspectives. Edward Elgar. pp. 1 -- 8. Jump up ^ `` Robber baron ''. 2017 - 12 - 22. Retrieved 2018 - 01 - 10. Jump up ^ Charles Harvey, et al. `` Andrew Carnegie and the foundations of contemporary entrepreneurial philanthropy. '' Business History 53.3 ( 2011 ) : 425 - 450, which is online and has a good bibliography. Jump up ^ Dwight Burlingame ( 2004 ). Philanthropy in America : A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, vol 2. ABC - CLIO. p. 419. Jump up ^ Robert H. Bremner, American philanthropy ( U of Chicago Press, 1988 ) p 109 ; full text of Albert Shaw, `` American Millionaires and Their Public Gifts, '' Review of Reviews ( February 1893 ), pp 48 - 60 ( https://sites.hks.harvard.edu/fs/phall/04.%20Bostonization.pdf is online here Jump up ^ Charles O'Brien ( 2013 ). Death of a Robber Baron. Kensington. p. 289. Jump up ^ Jepson, Tim ( 2004 - 01 - 01 ). The Rough Guide to Vancouver. Rough Guides. ISBN 9781843532453. Jump up ^ Theodore Dreiser ; Roark Mulligan, editor. ( 2010 ). The Financier : The Critical Edition. U. of Illinois Press. p. 559. CS1 maint : Extra text : authors list ( link ) Jump up ^ David Leon Chandler, Henry Flagler : The Astonishing Life and Times of the Visionary Robber Baron Who Founded Florida ( 1986 ) Jump up ^ George C. Kohn ( 2001 ). The New Encyclopedia of American Scandal. Infobase Publishing. p. 152. Jump up ^ Edward Renehan, Dark Genius of Wall Street : The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons ( 2005 ) Jump up ^ Keys, C.M. ( January 1906 ). `` The Overlords of Railroad Traffic : The Seven Men Who Reign Supreme ''. The World 's Work : A History of Our Time. XIII : 8437 -- 8445. Retrieved 2009 - 07 - 10. Jump up ^ `` The Redstone Story re-lives the industrialization of the West '' Redstone, Colorado website, history Jump up ^ Mary Kupiec Cayton et al. eds. ( 1993 ). Encyclopedia of American social history. Scribner. pp. 1064 vol 2. CS1 maint : Extra text : authors list ( link ) Jump up ^ Denning, Michael ( 1996 ). The Cultural Front : The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century. London, New York : Verso. p. 173. ISBN 9781844674640. Jump up ^ Stone, Oliver ( 2012 ). The Untold History of the United States. New York : Gallery Books. ISBN 9780091949310. Jump up ^ Martin Naparsteck ; Michele Cardulla ( 2013 ). Mrs. Mark Twain : The Life of Olivia Langdon Clemens, 1845 - 1904. McFarland. p. 109. Jump up ^ T.J. Stiles, The First Tycoon : The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt ( 2010 ) p 328 Jump up ^ John Franch, Robber Baron : The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes ( 2008 ) Further reading Beatty, Jack. ( 2008 ). Age of Betrayal : The Triumph of Money in America, 1865 - 1900 Vintage Books. ISBN 1400032423 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. Folsom, Burton W. ( 1991 ) The Myth of the Robber Barons : A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America Fraser, Steve. ( 2015 ). The Age of Acquiescence : The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0316185434 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 ). Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurs : Engagement in Philanthropy : Perspectives. Edward Elgar. pp. 1 -- 8. Wren, D.A. ( 1983 ) `` American business philanthropy and higher education in the nineteenth century '' Business History Review. 57 # 3 321 - 346. Zinn, Howard. ( 2005 ). `` Chapter 11 : Robber Barons and Rebels '' from A People 's History of the United States Harper Perennial. ISBN 0060838655 External links Look up robber baron in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Full Show : The New Robber Barons. Moyers & Company. December 19, 2014. Interview with historian Steve Fraser Industrial Age in America : Robber Barons or Captains of Industry EDSITEment lesson from National Endowment for the Humanities college - level lectures on Robber Barons Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robber_baron_(industrialist)&oldid=835798490 '' Categories : Business terms American businesspeople American industrialists History of the United States ( 1865 -- 1918 ) Industrial history of the United States Social class in the United States Hidden categories : CS1 maint : Extra text : authors list Talk Contents About Wikipedia Français 한국어 Hrvatski Italiano עברית 日本 語 Português Русский Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Edit links This page was last edited on 10 April 2018, at 20 : 53. About Wikipedia

Question: nickname given to railroad executives due to shady practices of their businesses
Answer: Robber Barons; Robber baron