Carnegie and Rockefeller

                 The Last lesson we learned about in class was on Carnegie and Rockefeller, two businessmen who lived in the 1800's and helped to advance the United States' industry. As a class, we watched a couple videos about the two, looking at different viewpoints on each of them. Some people believe they were bad men who only worked for their own benefit while others believed they actually cared about their workers and other people. after we took notes on the video, we split up and looked at each of their biographies. From this we had to decide on an essential question and answer it. We came up with the question "are John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie Robber Barons or Captains of Industry." A robber baron is someone who profits off of sneaky business tactics such as bribery and buying others out of business, and a captain of industry is a business owner who pours their effort into advancing the industry and being as productive as possible.
                  Lets start off by looking at Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie is the classic example of a "rags to riches" story, he grew up poor in Scotland and 13 years later would move to the U.S. with his family. Carnegie worked his way up, starting as a telegraph operator and using that skill to impress a railroad owner landing him a job at the Pittsburgh railroad. Later, during the Civil War, he helped manage the Union's telegraph and rail lines. After that, he invested heavily in the steel production industry. With some greatly needed help from a steel guru in Britain named Sir Henry Bessemer, Carnegie was able to establish his company as one of the best steel producers in the world and was able to take control of the industry. After being successful for many years and at one point being the second richest man in the world, Carnegie sold his company and dedicated his life to philanthropy, giving back to America and helping to advance education. Next is John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller grew up a pretty normal life and was able to go to school and pursue business after that. He saw the growing interest of oil in Cleveland especially. As time went on, he bought up most of his competitors and he and  his associates formed the Standard Oil Company. However, to maintain his status as top dog of the oil industry, Rockefeller employed cutthroat business tactics and circumvented the law often. despite this, later in life, he gave away a lot of his money to help fund education and medical advancements.                    Both of these men were great business leaders who helped shape America to become the prosperous nation we know today. Also, they donated large amounts of money so that they could influence a better future for America. However both acquired their wealth at the loss of other's wealth and sometimes used bad business tactics to get what they wanted. I think that these men should not be classified as one or the other, but rather I think they were both Robber Barons and Captains of Industry.