Robber

Robber baron was a term revived in the 19th century in the United States as a pejorative reference to businessmen and bankers who dominated their respective industries and amassed huge personal fortunes, typically as a direct result of pursuing various allegedly anti-competitive or unfair business practices. Some historians consider that the vast accumulation of wealth among the men known as robber barons constituted a substantial mis-allocation of resources across society. Other historians argue that the robber barons were essential to the transformation of the United States into a world power, due to their significant investments in industry, infrastructure, and education. The cultural impact of the massive riches accumulated by the robber barons was influential in defining the "American Dream" as it appeared to prove that a "rags to riches" story was possible in America. But as Herbert Guttmann pointed out, for so many of America's working class, especially those that had recently emigrated from Europe, "robber baron" had different connotations. Fearing the "Europeanization" of America, the robber barons came to symbolize all that immigrants feared and served to inspire their participation in such movements as land and currency reform, farm and business cooperatives, labor unions, and socialism. John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company and ran it until he retired in the late 1890s. He kept his stock and as gasoline grew in importance, his wealth soared and he became the world's richest man and first U.S. dollar billionaire, and is often regarded as the richest person in history.

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