Project: The War Between Capital and Labor

Biographical Sketch: The Robber Barons

During the last part of the 19th century the struggle between capital and labor intensified to the point where the battlefield consisted of armies of armed men on both sides, as ready to shoot one another down as they had been willing to shoot down rebvels or Yankees during the Civil War, of which many were veterans. Their battles led to hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries, millions of dollars worth of property destroyed, and a climate of violence that persisted well into the 20th century.

On one side stood the capitalists, the so-called "Robber Barons"—rich, powerful, and often ruthless in their pursuit of their business goals. Not necessarily dishonorable men, they were driven the ethos of their time, the age of Darwinian survivalism, a dog-eat-dog world where none but the strongest could survive and prosper. Most famous among them were J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockfeller, & Cornelius Vanderbilt. Against them stood men like labor leader Eugene Debs, union man “Big Bill” Haywood and Henry Ford, who was the first indistrialist to pay workers $5 per day.
robber barons

This  project  asks you to do a collective biographical sketch or general essay about a group of industrialists commonly referred to as the “robber barons.”  Many of their names are well-known: Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Morgan, Westinghouse; many others are less well known. Their collective contribution to America’s development is unquestioned.  History’s judgment of their humanitarian impulses is less clear; they did much good for medicine, education, communication, and other social needs, but they are undoubtedly caused misery for thousands of workers and competitors.

CarnegieYou may focus your attention here on the collective problem, or on one or more individuals.  As with your first essay, the point is to use materials from the period by or about the figures you select.  Full biographies of some of the characters are also useful sources, but you should still incorporate some documentary material in your research.  Below are some resources to get you started, and you are certainly encouraged to find others.  You should, however, avoid using secondary sources such as Wikipedia or other online summaries as the basis for your writing. Follow any of teh links for essay ideas.

On the other side were the workers: poor, ill educated, often newly immigrated to the United States , who were ready to work for a pittance, willing to sacrifice conspicuously in order merely to say alive, and prepared to forego education any kind of the entertainments and social amenities we normally associate with daily life. They lived like this simply to keep food in their mouths, a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs. For many of the working poor the opportunity to do this was something for which they had with been willing to risk even their lives in coming to America. In the middle were the journalists and social reformers who uncovered problems and tried to offer solutions, but at time powerful journalists such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst might have been seen as foxes supposedly guarding the chicken coop. Among them hoever, were famous muckraking journalists such as Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Jacob Riis and many others.

With the huge gap between rich and poor, something had to give. Given the thousands of people injured and killed in industrial accidents, the destruction of property, the disruption of lives, the prostitution, alcoholism, disease and petty crime that were part of the lot of the working man, a continuation of those conditions could have led to a revolutionary uprising among American workers. A reform movement helped prevent that catastrophe, but before we look at what happened to address these problems, this project asks you to look at the plight of the working man and woman and forces that controlled them.

Labor in the Industrial Age: Sources:

BOOKS:

  • Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
  • The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles
  • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy by Charles R. Morris
  • The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie
  • Andrew Carnegie: Industrial Philanthropist by Laura Bufano Edge

Be sure to read The War Between Capital and Labor as background material.

Industrial capitalism took off with a vengeance in late 19 th century America . The system is predicated upon the expansion of wealth. Consider how the little guy-the worker, the immigrant, the laborer-fared at the time when millionaires were blooming like flowers on the prairie. Why was capitalism virtually out of control in the late 1800s? What did it do to various elements of American society? Why was the political system so inept in dealing with these problems? Historian Page Smith calls the period 1865-1900 a period involving the "war between capital and labor." How did American deal with industrialism and the problems it created for workers? How did workers fare during this "Gilded Age"? How did "the other half" live?

Historian Page Smith has called struggles of the working class in the late nineteenth century the “War between capital and labor.” Write an essay using these and other web resources that addresses the following questions or related topics of your own choosing. The basic question you should address is, What was it like to be a working person in America around 1900?

  • What evidence can you find to suggest that the designation “War between capital and labor” is appropriate?
  • What issues might come down to us in modern times?
  • What issues no longer seem relevant?
  • Why do you suppose America never developed a "proletariat," or permanent working class?
  • What was the impact of immigration on America's labor problems?
History 122 Essays | History 122 | Updated January 26, 2011