The American Businessman: Industrial Innovator or Robber Baron?
During the latter part of the nineteenth century, industries began to bloom across the United States. Local businesses and merchants gave way to larger corporations and industries. The head of these industries, such as the names of Rockefeller, Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan, were looked upon as robber barons by some, industrial innovators by others. A baron is "one having great wealth, power, and influence in a specified sphere of activity: an oil baron." Therefore the robber barons that these men were looked upon as were "on…
