The Robber Barons

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The Robber Barons

Author: Matthew Josephson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Copyright: 1940
Pages: 492
Cover Price: $ 17.00

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Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Harriman, Gould, Frick...this is the story of the giant american capitalists who seized economic power after the Civil War and altered the shape of american life forever.

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Background Information

John D. Rockefeller went from humble beginnings to become the richest man in America by consolidating his hold on the production and refining of petroleum through Standard Oil. J.P. Morgan was a banker equally at home in the refinement of London financial circles and the rough and tumble of American industry. Cornelius Vanderbilt founded a transportation empire based on steam and launched a family dynasty that became synonymous with extreme wealth. Jay Gould was a railroad investor and speculator during the Gilded Age and is sometimes regarded as the epitome of the immoral robber baron. Andrew Carnegie immigrated from Scotland and grew enormously rich in the steel business, which he sold to JP Morgan to devote himself to philanthropy.