The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy

In an insightful analysis of the causes for the American surge, Whitworth proposed a list that included the relative scarcity of labor; the country’s great natural resources (although he points out that large tracts of the nation were quite barren); the lack of resistance to innovation on the part of workers; fewer barriers to organizing businesses

But if production was rising, the question remains of why prices were falling. The simplest explanation is that it was a consequence of America’s return to the gold standard in 1879. After Jay Gould’s 1872 Gold Corner, the greenback had settled into a trading range of 125 to 130 greenbacks for $100 in gold. Achieving parity with gold and the Britis

Two courses are open to a new concern like ours—1st Stand timidly back, afraid to “break the market” [or] . . . 2nd To make up our minds to offer certain large customers lots at figures which will command orders—For my part I would run the works full next year even if we made but $2 per ton.

But his misdeeds were not the reason he conquered his industry: he won because he was faster in apprehension and more deadly in execution than any of his contemporaries.

one Carnegie executive claimed he could make a farmboy into a melter, previously one of the more skilled positions, in just six to eight weeks. Integrated operations also eliminated the last vestiges of internal contracting. Line employees now worked only for other hired hands, increasing their psychological distance from senior managers. One labor

Especially in the 1880s and 1890s, the Chicago School of urban architecture—Louis Sullivan was its greatest exponent—pioneered clean, elevator high-rise, glass-enclosed steel-frame designs, with minimal ornamentation, well-lighted, open interior spaces, and separate shafts for utilities. As one leading Chicago architect put it: Bearing in mind that

America had once been an archipelago of small towns in which hierarchy commanded deference and local opinion bounded behavior. But the country’s extraordinary social and geographic mobility was creating a horizontal society. When every man or woman is free to constantly recreate himself or herself, one never knows who one should be or, just as frig

Carnegie’s drive to the top of the steel industry feels almost hormonal—boundless energy, aggression, and ambition fortunately channeled into something constructive. Rockefeller’s seems much more a matter of sheer intelligence in pursuit of an ever-larger scale of elegance and order. Carnegie pushed and badgered, shamelessly playing executives agai

Rockefeller also may have been unique among oil executives for his understanding of distribution. Kerosene—illuminating oil—was arguably the first global consumer product. (Grain markets were global, of course, but grain was usually processed locally into flour or bread before being sold to consumers.) Rockefeller pursued tightly integrated marketi