After the Civil War: Capitalists Shaped Industrial America

After the civil war there were capitalists who shaped industrial America. They established new industrial establishments and made great success of these as well older industrial enterprises, developing and using new technologies, products, and business practices. Some will say that they did these things by being robber barons, or by being captains of industry. A robber baron is a business leader who uses politics to achieve their ends. A captain of industry is a business leader who contributes to the community in a positive way. The most accurate characterization of these capitalists is captains of industry because of capitalists like Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller and their contributions to the community.

There are many capitalists that have contributed to their community by sharing their wealth. For example Andrew Carnegie, who is considered the steel king; contributed big time to his community. He is responsible by donations and construction for about 2,509 libraries which his donation was around 350 million dollars. He is considered to be one of the biggest philanthropic in our history because of the way he used his wealth and power to help the community. Carnegie shares what a rich man should do with his money in the book Gospel of Wealth. But he was not the only huge contributor to their community.

The other capitalist that contributed to the community in a significant way, was John D. Rockefeller. He founded many charitable organizations that had to do with science and medicine. The Rockefellers also created the University of Chicago, and created the first major trust. He helped push America economy forward with his great charitable works. These two capitalist, with charitable work, and great donations, show why they should be called captains of industry instead of robber barons.

These capitalists like Carnegie and Rockefeller had to be robber barons at times to ultimately become captains of industry. They had to crush the competition and find different ways for their company to be successful. If it was wrong for them to do that, then every company would be called robber barons for them wanting to have to best business. In order for