The Robber Barons The Great American Capitalists Pdf

Add tags for 'The robber barons; the great American capitalists, 1861-1901.' Be the first. Similar Items. Related Subjects: (13) Capitalists and financiers -- United States. Industries -- United States -- History. Railroads -- United States -- History. Capitalists and financiers. United States. The robber barons the great American capitalists, 1861-1901 by Josephson, Matthew. Published 1934 by Harcourt, Brace and company in New York. Accessible book, Protected DAISY. 1 Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists, 1861-1901 (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1934).

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Preview — The Robber Barons by Matthew Josephson

The Robber Barons details the history of a small class of men who arose at the time of the American Civil War and swept into power. They were aggressive, and in important crises, nearly all of them tended to act without those established principles associated with the common people of the community. At the same time, many of them showed qualities of courage. These robber b..more

Published November 9th 2010 by Transaction Publishers (first published June 1940)

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Rating details

Jan 27, 2014Jane rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Where I got the book: purchased used on Amazon.
The Robber Barons was written in 1934, but there’s not much that seems dated about this enjoyable popular history. I bought it to get a better idea of what the industrial leaders of the late nineteenth century were like; usually I like to look for the most modern source on the assumption that they will have done more extensive research, but there’s something to be said for the argument that a writer closer in time to the actual events will have a mo..more

Aug 25, 2008Stephen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

5.0 stars. In my opinion, this is the best book written on the subject of the economic transformation of the U.S. after the Civil War through the early 1900 told through the stories of the rise (and fall) of the giants of capitalism that created the modern U.S. Economy. Included are the stories of Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Harriman, Gould and Frick. I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.

Oct 29, 2017Glen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Hopelessly biased book about the Robber Barons, who grew rich during the latter half of the 19 century, and introduced concepts such as conspicuous consumption. Some facts, a lot of opinions.

Nov 03, 2009Cwn_annwn_13 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This chronicles the post civil war to early 1900s greed grab of some of the greatest scoundrels in American history. Vanderbilt, Astor, Rockefeller, Carnegie, J.P Morgan, Harriman, and the slithery Jay Gould. Immoral Capitalist pig scumbags who made money no matter what the cost (to others) through steel, oil, banking, coal and especially through the railroads. At that time if you controlled the railroads you 100% controlled all shipping and movement of goods so they got their cut even if it was..more

Apr 27, 2008Greg Brooks-English rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A great historical overview of how concentrated capital came to be and learned to manipulate the public for its own ends leaving the public with all the risk and the monopolists with all the profits, and how this model still persists to the present day in companies such as Microsoft, Telecoms, among many other industries.
One downside of the book is that it was written in 1935 and hasn't been updated since, using the old prose of that era, making it at times a bit hard to read for non-native spea..more

Feb 22, 2017Geoffrey Cobb rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Great book, very well written and researched

Jul 11, 2018Kay rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book is certainly a product of its time. First published in 1934 at the height of the Great Depression, this is a damning look at the men who arose around the Civil War and after and how they basically looted the country with government give-aways of land and tax breaks (railroads). They did work hard but this book is careful to emphasize that these were miserable people who couldn't really even enjoy the spoils they work so hard to show off because they were so fearful of losing out (and t..more

Apr 11, 2019Andrew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Brilliant, timeless depiction of America's post civil war establishment.
I personally found this book extremely educational.
I believe there are many analogies of which may be constructed & observed throughout human history, of which are presented here.
By depicting America in such matter of fact terms, this title lends itself to a study on human nature itself.
America at the time of which it is presented in this text, being exposed to extremely unique yet powerful circumstances, whereby the cou..more

May 09, 2018David Shaffer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A well written and comprehensive book on the Barons of Industry from the early 19th century with Cornelius Vanderbilt to the time of Theodore Roosevelt and the busting of the Trusts. Speaks quite a bit about Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan and their acquisitions. but also goes into others of this age who were smaller in scale, especially out west but still examples of the age. I would recommend this for those interested in the history of this period and o..more

Feb 20, 2019Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is the story of American capitalists who became rich after the Civil War: Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Carnegie and many others. Most were ruthless and developed monopolies that destroyed others. I don’t think any of these men were happy with their lot. Were worried about losing it or not having it all. This was not my favorite book or author but it was an eye opener.

Jul 24, 2019David L Frank added it · review of another edition

Shed a new and different view of some of the Barrons and how honest they were. Good read.

Dec 15, 2014Tim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was a wonderfully written, insightful, and often subtly humorous account of the lives of the businessmen who laid the foundations of American enterprise in the 1800s. Josephson points out regularly that this was not done as a service to the public. These guys were ruthless accumulators who engaged in all sorts of cut-throat activities in order to come out on top. The stock market was their roller coaster, and it is interesting to see how it was forced up and down and all over the map by the..more

Jun 13, 2011May Ling rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a very well researched piece that covers an enormous subject and period of history. There was so much in the way of industrial, financial, and capitalistic development. In this regard, the book is quite factual, though there are other scholars/authors that take issue with some of the details on the portrayal of characters such as Jay Gould (see the book The Mismeasure of a Man).
In this regard, I think the book could have gotten a final star from me if it had attempted to do less, but mo..more

Dec 12, 2016Matěj Bregant rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Josephson's book is important mainly in proving that the so-called captains of industry were financial pirates who built their empires on the backs of impoverished miners, railroad workers, foundry workers, and countless others. Even if they later put huge sums of money into philantopic endeavors in a PR effort to clean their reputation, their imprint on the American industry and American experience in general was stupendous. Josephson could have devoted more space to the union struggle in the t..more

Jan 28, 2015Hayley rated it liked it · review of another edition

A long labor of love for my book group. I enjoyed the tremendous depths this book plumbed, but disliked the quick gloss of effects to unions, riots, labor disputes, and just the general effect of the emassing of riches on the everyday man. The workers in these factories worked for so little for so long. But this book focused on the stock market, legal aspects, and law changing effects of those hungry for power and money. I am grateful for this time in history for many reasons.

Jul 11, 2015Dina rated it liked it · review of another edition

There is a difference between being historian and a writer. This writer should have been the former. So basically nothing has changed, only instead of railroads that were at least building industrial prosperity of the country, we have financial wizards that produce and build nothing except imaginary valuations on computer screen. The world burns faster than ever. Progress, ya know.

Aug 22, 2007matt Sandler rated it really liked it · review of another edition

best written book on the subject. you really get a sense of the flush times, and leave wanting your own printing press to water your stocks with. by an editor of the downtown little renaissance magazine, BROOM, in the 1910's, so its literary.

Aug 01, 2008Jsb added it · review of another edition

Polemical, yet informative. The abuses of capitalism in this period were so great that you really weep with joy when TR becomes president.

Dec 10, 2016Douglas rated it liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Mar 14, 2016Tom Nolan added it · review of another edition

Mar 03, 2019Mark Kline rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Very insightful
I learned a lot from this book about the early industrial period in the u.s. A very good read. There.

Deborah Reynolds rated it really liked it
Jun 11, 2019

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Excerpt

The Robber Barons was written during that Great Slump which, beginning in 1929, reached its lowest depths in 1929-1933. The New Era of Prosperity had ended; the captains and the kings of industry were, some of them, departing; and we were asking ourselves insistently how we, as a nation, had got into such a pass? In the twenties I had worked for a few years in Wall Street and learned a few things about the 'Men Who Rule America,' according to James W. Gerard. Some time later, after 1929, I did a number of biographical studies of them for a well-known satirical magazine. Yet, what I gathered from these experts and from readings in our financial history led me to consider the money men of the twenties as mere epigones compared with their mighty forebears, the economic dinosaurians who flourished during the latter part of the nineteenth century and gave a special character to their period, so aptly named by Mark Twain the Gilded Age. Thus the idea was conceived of writing a history of the earlier generation of capitalists who had put their stamp so deeply upon our business society. It was my purpose to give an account not only of their lives and their manners and morals, but also of how they got the money.

At that season in 1933 when money itself was disappearing (all the banks having been closed for a while) it seemed as if this whole breed might disappear, or perhaps be reformed beyond recognition. Would such fearsome bulls and bears ever again range over the market place as anarchs of all they surveyed? Then, the old barons had such great panache! -- with their private 'palace cars' on rails, their imitation-Renaissance castles, and their pleasure yachts, one of which J. P. Morgan defiantly christened The Corsair. Those 'kings' of railways, those monopolists of iron or pork, moreover, founded dynastic families which Charles A. Beard once likened to the old ducal families of feudal England.

The expanding America of the post-Civil War era was the paradise of freebooting capitalists, untrammeled and untaxed. They demanded always a free hand in the market, promising that in enriching themselves they would 'build up the country' for the benefit of all the people. The Americans of those days had no time for the arts of civilization, as Henry Adams observed, but turned as with a single impulse to the huge tasks of developing their half-empty continent, spanning it with a railway net, and constructing the heavy industrial plant requisite for the new scale of power. All of this was achieved in a climactic quarter-century of our industrial revolution, with much haste, much public scandal, and without plan -- under the leadership of a small class of parvenus. These were the aggressive and acquisitive types (much censured by our classic writers and historians) who believed they constituted 'the survival of the fittest.'

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Theirs is the story of a well-nigh irresistible drive toward monopoly, which the plain citizens, Congresses, and Presidents opposed -- seemingly in vain. The captains or barons of industry were, nevertheless, agents of progress -- in the words of their contemporary Marx; under their com-

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Book details

482 pages

Publisher:Harcourt, Brace & World

Place of publication: New York

Publication year: 1962

Subjects:

The Robber Barron's The Great American Capitalists Pdf Download

Capitalists And Financiers--United States
Railroads--United States--History
Industries--United States--History

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