The Robber Barons

The Robber Barons
Matthew Josephson | 1962-01-24 00:00:00 | Mariner Books | 492 | Finance

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. Index.

Reviews
This book is a classic of denegration based on ideology. The author does not understand that the only way to create wealth is to please other people and chooses to ignore the fact that a handful of people think and are willing to invest their time and money on their knowledge. The entrepreneurs made the United States the most powerful country in the history of the world and are continuously berated by those who haven't the courage to compete in the open market place!
Reviews
This book - "The Robber Barons" - was supposed to be in good condition. It arrived with scotch tape on the cover and looked old, dog-eared, and not carefully used. The sellers comments were "Limited marks in text. Spine uncreased" Condition: Used - Good. No mention of tape, scraped spine and age. I would have listed it as Fair. Yes, it is readable, but it is the tackiest looking book I've bought from Amazon with a listing of "Good" condition.
Reviews
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 wasn't an industry that they had a controlling interest in. Some of these peoples descendents are currently at the top of the food chain of the criminal globalist network that currently controls the world.



There was some but not enough in this about how they screwed over the working man and consumer but it was laugh out loud funny to see how they would backstab each other. In some cases they took great delight in completely destroying the very people who gave them their first break so they could get their feet in the door in the world of big business. It was funny to see how they would slander anybody who opposed them with the communist (never mind that these uber-capitalists had a huge hand in funding various communist revolutions themselves) slur, which worked well for these types well into the 1970s. Now the same types throw around terms like racist and terrorist in the same way at anybody that opposes them. Also it was not surprising to see how these same types then, as they do now, use immigration and the Christian church to their advantage. One thing I would liked to have seen in this book which wasn't even touched on is the belief many have that most of the Robber Barons were creations of and lackeys for banking houses based in Britain and Europe but overall this was an excellent book.
Reviews
Of course this book is famous. Josephson coined the term 'Robber Baron'. What is fascinating and important about this book is;



a) It confirms the paradox that many of the best writers of the history of business and capitalism are socialists or communists. Marx, Lenin, Hobsbawm, Dreiser, Galbraith, etc. Their writing is addictive. I have read Josephson's book multiple times for the sheer pleasure of his style as I have the books of Eric Hobsbawm. The irony is that these authors have probably done more to enthuse young and aspiring tycoons than discourage them. Much like Oliver Stone's shock at discovering that Gordon Geko became a hero to an entire generation of Wall Street traders.



b) It, along with the books of the other gifted writers, was totally wrong. The reason why their predictions on the end of capitalism failed to materialize is because the 'facts' they base their forecasts on were not facts after all. What we now know, and much of this was known in Josephson's time, is that the crimes of the Gould's, Vanderbilt's, etc were pure fantasy or at best exaggerations. It simply did not happen that way. These men simply were not the 'robbers' of Josephson's imagination.



c) Its wonderful writing style actually inspired a future generation of pro-capitalist authors to reach for the same level of writing excellence. Such is the irony of history and the law of unintended consequences.
Reviews
A book this durable probably deserves a decent rating just for being able to tough it through all these decades. Overall, Mr. Josephson's book has the features of Karl Marx's practical prescriptions for a capitalist economy, without much of Marx's considerable understanding about the creation of capital. Since Marx did make an outstanding analysis of the genesis and growth of capital in market economies (at least at that time), but faltered badly on the "prescription" part, Josephson's book clearly needs other features to recommend it.



One of those is the smooth style in which "Robber Barons" is written. Josephson is interesting, although not reliably authoritative. Every good writer knows the value of including stories within nonfiction, and this author does a quite creditable job here. Stories glue nonfiction subsection together well, making the reading often less dry. Unlike most of my reviews, I shall excerpt some pieces from "Robber Barons" to show the book's heavy slant:



· On page 7, right off the bat, he speaks about the "sordid and practical materialism" of entrepreneurs.



· Entrepreneurs' "keen eyes" would swoop down and offer better rates and services (during the story of Cornelius Vanderbilt, p13).



· Smart business practice caused, "activity, volume, lower prices vs. honest, but limited services at higher tariffs," p16. [Good grief!]



· Railroads were rich, but people were poor (during the later 19th century), p253.



· In a humorously odd twist, the author called WWI a period of peace for big businessmen; post-war saw the revival of domestic warfare again (p418). Remember the movie "Dr. Strangelove"? Near the end, the US president tells a scuffling military officer and the Soviet ambassador, "Gentlemen! You can't fight in the war room!" Same odd reversal.



Unfortunately, the book consists mostly of similar points of view.



Let's be fair. "Robber Barons" was written in the late Depression in the US. At that time, there was considerable radical frustration with the US economy. Much of that frustration came from persons like the author, who truly wished the FDR programs to work. Few ever did by any measure. Seen in this light, "Robber Barons" makes sense. Give the author a break.



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