Questions and Topics We Can Help You Answering;
Watch the video about the Industrial Revolution (http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution)
to get an idea about life before and during the Industrial Revolution.
"This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; … and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer… to produce the most beneficial results for the community—the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves."
—From "Wealth," by Andrew Carnegie, North American Review (1889)
"Law? Who cares about the law. Hain't I got the power?"
—Comment alleged to have been made by Cornelius Vanderbilt, when warned that he might be violating the law
Though a century has passed since the heyday of the great industrialists and financiers, debate continues: were these men captains of industry, without whom this country could not have taken its place as a great industrial power, or were they robber barons, limiting healthy competition and robbing from the poor to benefit the rich?
Where do we draw the line between unfair business practices and competition that leads to innovation, investment, and improvement in the standard of living for everyone?
Would the industrial economy have succeeded without entrepreneurs willing to take competition to its extremes?
It has been argued that we are now in a comparable economic period, the formative years of the Information Age. Certainly we continue to struggle with similar kinds of questions about fair and unfair business practices and the benefits and costs of competition.
Does the industrialization of America at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century hold any lessons for us today?
Can market forces exert sufficient influence to rein in potentially harmful practices or does government have to intervene?
About a century has passed since the events at the center of this lesson—the Haymarket Affair, the Homestead Strike, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. For some people in our nation, these incidents illustrated the unfair conditions faced by workers as the United States assumed its position as the most highly industrialized nation in the world. For others, they demonstrated the difficulty of managing industries. Such disagreements continue to this day.
Where do we draw the line between acceptable business practices and unacceptable working conditions?
Can an industrial—and indeed a post-industrial—economy succeed without taking advantage of those who do the work?
John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan and Thomas Edison
Read about these men at: Biography.com (http://www.biography.com/people/groups/captains-of-industry) and elsewhere (document your sources and cite them if you use their words)
Choose one of these men and fill out the form for the one you choose.
Fill out the form below
(copy and paste into word or similar program.)
(IN YOUR OWN WORDS)
Name of Industrialist: ______________________________________
How did he acquire his wealth?
How he (or his related industries) treated workers.
How he spent his money.
How he donated his money.
Do you believe he is a Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?
What made you categorize your choice as a Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?
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Sources:
