Amazon.com: The Robber Barons: Matthew Josephson: Books

Product Description

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.

About the Author

Matthew Josephson (1899-1978) received a Guggenheim fellowship and was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He is the author of, among other books, Al Smith: Hero of the Cities, winner of the Van Wyck Brooks prize for biography and history.

Product Details

Paperback: 492 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books; reprint edition (January 24, 1962)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0156767902
ISBN-13: 978-0156767903
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #130,219 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#14 in Books > History > United States > 19th Century > Gilded Age

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Front Cover | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
THE cannonading that began at Charleston with the dawn of April 12,1861, sounded the tocsin for the men of the new American union. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
railroad captains, frenzied finance, steel masters, railroad field, transcontinental road, ooo shares, railroad chiefs, steel trade, railroad barons, oil regions, industrial barons, ooo barrels

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Northern Pacific, Standard Oil, Union Pacific, Wall Street, Jay Gould, Pierpont Morgan, United States, Jay Cooke, Southern Pacific, San Francisco, Daniel Drew, Jim Fisk, Great Northern, Jim Hill, Henry Frick, Pennsylvania Railroad, New England, Western Union, Central Pacific, Erie Railroad, Collis Huntington, House of Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Missouri Pacific

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Front Cover | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 53 books:

The Theory Of Business Enterprise by Thorstein Veblen on 4 pages
House of Morgan by Lewis Corey on 4 pages
Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography by Henry F. Pringle on 4 pages
The passing of the idle rich (The Leisure class in America) by Frederick Townsend Martin on page 335, page 350, and Back Matter
History of the Great American Fortunes by Gustavus Myers on page 144, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

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100 books cite this book:

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Corporation Nation: How Corporations are Taking Over Our Lives -- and What We Can Do About It by Charles Derber on 4 pages
The Reconstruction of American Liberalism, 1865-1914 by Nancy Cohen in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two Histories for the Price of One, January 29, 2002

By	Peter A. Greene (Franklin, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you're going to write history, the best thing to do is be objective and balanced. But if you can't do that, the second best thing is to broadcast your bias loud and clear.

By going the second route, this book provides not only a historical account of the robber barons, but a pretty clear picture of the Marxist perspective on them in 1934.

It's interesting at times to watch Josephson struggle for balance. On the one hand, he seems to almost admire the big capitalists when they're creating collectives by crushing the little capitalists. On the other hand, when they start tromping on the workers, they're clearly Very Naughty. And he addresses the rampant religious fervor of most of the barons, but never really figures out how to make it fit the picture other than by suggesting they're just enormously hypocritical.

The story of railroad, steel and banking essentially taking over the country is here, nicely organized so that we can follow relevant threads without getting to caught up in chronology. Josephson sometimes lets his billowing prose and sweeping characterizations overwhelm detail and fact; his style is definitely not for all tastes.

Ultimately it's a double history, not only of the Robber Barons themselves, but of the singular vantage point of the mid-thirties. Yes, Josephson is not the most objective of chroniclers, but his bias is so clearly stated and in evidence that it is easy to filter out, and his point of view becomes an interesting subject of this study in its own right.

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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book, but, June 12, 2006

By	Biz Reader (OK, USA) - See all my reviews

I found the Robber Barons an interesting book to read but I thought Matthew Josephson's book the Money Lords was better. It is a well written book as you would expect from Josephon. Robber Barons is a classic and a good general history of the pioneers of industry including Astor, Vanderbilt, Drew, Cooke, Gould, Fisk, Carnegie, Morgan, Rockefeller and Harriman of which I am sure most will find it interesting but it lacks the insight and wisdom of Money Lords. There are numerous interesting stories of all the above metioned men as they made their individual quests for success. Most of the men made a great deal of their fortunes through stocks on Wall Street which some of their stories are outlined here. Interesting enough is that over half made their fortunes in Rail Roads through ownership and stock manipulation. This is a good book giving the reader a general overview of some of the biggest fortunes made during the late 1800's.

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19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the finest history of the Robber Barons, December 17, 2005

By	TD (Boston) - See all my reviews

Judging by the attack "reviews" below there must be some right-wing campaign in progress to discredit Josephson. It's probably being organized by one of those propaganda machines they call "conservative think tanks".

That nonsense aside, the book itself is a fabulous read as a tome on both history and grand business strategy for building a trust. Indeed I found it difficult to put down at night in order to go to sleep. Josephson brings the Robber Barons alive.

For anyone interested in how men can amass such great fortunes the book provides plenty of clues by revealing the strategies used by the Robber Barons.

One final point, a few of the attack reviews here are critical of Josephson for siding with labor in their disputes with the Robber Barons. They conveniently overlook the fact that most workers were treated as slaves back then working 12 hour days 6 times per week. If they dared complain about dangerous work conditions, the Andrew Carnegie types would simply send in battalions of Pinkerton goons to bust heads open and maybe even murder a few workers for good measure.

There is no other history of the Robber Barons that comes close to this book.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat appropriate view of business titans considering the year this book was written
The Robber Barons by Matthew Josephson was written in 1934 - at the heart of the Great Depression when America was struggling financially. Read more

Published 2 days ago by Joker

5.0 out of 5 stars Civil War for the Barons

Matthew Josephson directly links the onset of the Civil War to the Industrial Revolution. Before Lincoln had served even a single day in office, the south was circling the... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Mark R. Connors

5.0 out of 5 stars How Robber Barons Reformed America
This 1934 book provides a history of the late 19th century that is missing from school history books. Read more

Published on June 20, 2007 by Acute Observer

3.0 out of 5 stars The Robber Barons Are Corporatists; NOT Capitalists!
Oh - the confusion in political language! No, folks, the Robber Barons did not rise out of laissez-faire capitalism; they were not capitalists! Read more

Published on January 7, 2006 by Robert A. Williams

3.0 out of 5 stars Complicated and Lacking
I decided to read this book because I have a great interest in the topic and Josephson is cited in a number of books by authors I enjoyed (Chernow, Morris, amoung others)... Read more

Published on August 17, 2005 by J. Frank

1.0 out of 5 stars Do Not Bring This Book To The Beach!
The Robber Baron's was equired reading for my 11th grade A.P. U.S. History Class. I love history and books pertaining to it, so I began this book excitedly. Read more

Published on August 8, 2003 by K.

3.0 out of 5 stars A 1930s Socialist's view of the Gilded Age
Originally published at the height of the Depression, Matthew Josephson's "The Robber Barons" marks the climax of academic and popular hostility toward the early industrialists... Read more

Published on September 25, 2002 by Timothy J. Graczewski

5.0 out of 5 stars The classic book on the subject
This book was first written in 1934 and remains the definite description of the Robber Barons. The author describes the Barons in the context of the political, social, and... Read more

Published on February 21, 2001 by Bob Heddle

2.0 out of 5 stars too much flower
being an avid historian i was somewhat disappointed with this book. parts were truely exciting but on the whole a la mozart, "too many words. Read more

Published on January 6, 2000 by LEWIS CRAIG PETERMAN

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative, but not in the way Josephson intended
I have no doubt that Matthew Josephson wrote this book to denounce "unrestrained capitalism." Yet, when one reads this book critically, he'll find that most of the... Read more

Published on September 28, 1999

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