Things to Think About When Reading the Materials on Carnegie and the Other Robber Barons

Please note that you are responsible for reading the paper by Brad DeLong, "Robber Barons," as well as consulting at least some of the background material on Andrew Carnegie scattered over the web sites in the syllabus. These sites are also listed below. You should read enough to be able to answer the questions below. There is no specific requirement to read particular web pages in the Carnegie material, but you will be responsible for the Carnegie case (video) we will do in class. The web page material relates very directly to the video (one site is for the video), and you can use it to help you review your notes.

J. Bradford DeLong, "Robber Barons," Department of Economics, University of California-Berkeley, 1998.This paper is posted on the course web page. You can also obtain it at the following URL: http://econ161.berkeley.edu/Econ_Articles/carnegie/DeLong_Moscow_paper2.html

Also read about Carnegie at the following sites; you can jump about a bit and sample the extensive material on his life and the era:

http://www.einetwork.net/ein/andrcarn/ [History of one of the Carnegie libraries]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/sfeature/money.html [Background on film we will see]

Questions

This assignment should be prepared for discussion in section. We will be seeing the video, "Andrew Carnegie: The Richest Man in the World" over two lecture sessions. Be sure you have completed your preparation of these questions by the section after the video is complete. You need not write out your answers to these questions, but they will cover issues or topics that we will discuss in class and in the sections. Some of these questions can be answered more fully after you have seen the video. You are responsible for knowing the answers to these questions; they may be part of our quizzes and/or final exam.

1. How did Carnegie manage his rise to great wealth — what methods did he use to get ahead?

2. What tools did Carnegie use to compete successfully?

3. According to Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth, what are the duties of the wealthy person?

4. Compare Carnegie's activities to those of modern industrial leaders. Does he remind you of any modern corporate leaders? How and why?

5. The fabulously wealthy corporate leaders of Carnegie's time who built dominating businesses have been termed "robber barons." How appropriate is that term?

6. Historians agree that all the robber barons might fairly be called "ruthless," including Carnegie. Yet some, especially Carnegie, were great philanthropists. Be prepared to discuss this apparent contradiction.

7. Our country has gone through cycles in which some periods saw the development of great wealth concentration and the production of billionaires (or relative billionaires, given the wealth they had relative to the average worker). We have not simply seen a steady increase in billionaires as the country's industrial strength developed. What factors produce great wealth? Be prepared to discuss whether such wealth is good or bad for the country.

8. The video and the web sites offer information about the lives of workers in the steel industry and in related industries in the late nineteenth century. The readings in the two books also describe working conditions in low wage jobs in the current era. Compare work then and now. Consider such dimensions as working hours, the work week, supervisor-employee relationships, safety on the job, living conditions, the relationship of the job site to the local community, the ability of the worker to make adequate wages to support self and family, and other issues that permit comparisons.