The American Businessman: Industrial Innovator or Robber Baron? During the latter part of the nineteenth century, industries began to bloom across the United States. Local businesses and merchants gave way to larger corporations and industries. The head of these industries, such as the names of Rockefeller, Carnegie, and J.P. Morgan, were looked upon as robber barons by some, industrial innovators by others. A baron is "one having great wealth, power, and influence in a …showed first 75 words of 1561 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1561 total…No side outweighs the other. There are always going to be reasons for why they were robber barons and there are always going to be reasons for why they were industrial innovators. Only one sure thing can be said about the matter, that no matter how corrupt, no matter how unethical these men were, they helped this nation in such a way that it would not be anywhere near where it is today without them.