History Alive Slide Lecture Slides

The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, 1883

Andrew Carnegie

Industry Key Person Significant Facts

Steel Andrew Carnegie

•1883-Brooklyn Bridge < symbol of American transition

• Bessemer process < turn iron into steel• Skyscrapers

Pioneer Run, Pennsylvania

John D. Rockefeller

Industry Key Person Significant Facts

Oil John D. Rockefeller

• Standard Oil• 1st successful oil well drilled in 1859

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Industry Key Person Significant Facts

Railroad Cornelius Vanderbilt

• American Railway Assoc. divided the nation into 4 time zones

“Captains of Industry” vs.

“Robber barons” – controlled the major industries of the

nation and much of American Society

Social Darwinism – “survival of the fittest”• preserved the strong in society and

weeded out the weak• relieved any unwelcome guilt they may

have felt about poverty in society

Gospel of Wealth – God’s chosen

• for those who found Social Darwinism distasteful

• religious rationale for wealth• Carnegie took this one step further by

saying that society’s fittest had both the talent and responsibility for deciding what was best for society.

Laissez –faire economics – “to let one do”

• government’s proper role was to leave the economy alone

• government interference would disrupt the natural forces at work in the economy