The Robber Barons - The Great American Capitalists 1861-1901 (1934).pdf

This is Matthew Josephson's monumental book The Robber Barons - The Great American Capitalists 1861-1901 (1934) which follows the history of monopoly corporatism in America and exposes the so called "great capitalists" who were in reality nothing else than the biggest robber barons of the 19th and 20th century. The robber barons did not rise out of laissez-faire capitalism as they were simply not capitalists at all. They rose out of the state's ability to grant corporate status, they are therefore children of the state. In fact, they are the antithesis of free enterprise. Josephson's book is not just a book on the history of corporatism in America. By wrongly labelling the corporatist robber barons as "The Great American Capitalists", he unintentionally gave the corporatists the rhetoric of free enterprise with which to hide their statist anti-capitalist behavior. In other words, there was a huge difference between Andrew Carnegie, the partner, who payed the highest wages and charged the lowest prices, and J.P. Morgan's U.S. Steel, the corporation that charged the highest prices and ran to its parent - the State, for protective tariffs. 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. 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. Today, corporations have been granted Constitutional rights by the State, who views them as "artificial persons". A country by the corporations, of the corporations and for the corporations. Josephson would rightly be incensed, although he couldn't think of the correct words to say. 330 pages. A must read for everyone.

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