Benevolent barons : American worker-centered industrialists, 1850-1910 / Quentin R. Skrabec, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Skrabec, Quentin R., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Industrialists--United States--Case studies.

Industrialists.

Capitalists and financiers--United States--Case studies.

Capitalists and financiers.

Capitalism--United States--History.

Capitalism.

United States.

History.

Industrial relations--United States--History.

Industrial relations.

Labor--United States--History.

Labor.

United States--Economic conditions.

Economic conditions.

Economic history.

Genre:

Case studies.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 230 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, [2015]

Summary:

American business has always had deep roots in community. For over a century, the country looked to philanthropic industrialists to finance hospitals, parks, libraries, civic programs, community welfare and disaster aid. Worker-centered capitalists saw the workplace as an extension of the community and poured millions into schools, job training and adult education. Often criticized as welfare capitalism, this system was unique in the world. Lesser known capitalists like Peter Cooper and George Westinghouse led the movement in the mid- to late 1800s. Westinghouse, in particular, focused on good wages and benefits. Robber barons like George Pullman and Andrew Carnegie would later succeed in corrupting the higher benefits of worker-centered capitalism. This is the story of those accomplished Americans who sought to balance the accumulation of wealth with communal responsibility. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Puritan Experiment 11

2 Genesis of an Industrial Race 21

3 European Industrialization, Master Entrepreneurs, and Worker Utopias 37

4 Lowell and Rockdale 51

5 Crisis in American Labor: Class, Skilled, and Unskilled Laborers 60

6 Early Paternal and Employee-Driven Capitalists 70

7 Robber Barons and the Questioning of Capitalism 80

8 New Breed of Paternal Capitalists 89

9 American Patriarchal or Philanthropic Capitalism 101

10 The Failure of Pullman City 115

11 The Greatest Paternalist of Them All 125

12 Westinghouse's Paternalism 131

13 Trusts and Corruption 143

14 Wilmerding, America's New Lanark 155

15 Capitalism with a Heart-Westinghouse's Vision 174

16 A Government Policy for Philanthropy and Paternalism 181

17 Corporate Paternalism 189

18 Unions, Industrial Democracy and the New Deal 200

19 Visions Come True 211

20 And the Wolf Finally Came-Deindustrialization and Globalization 214.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780786494941

0786494948

OCLC:

900306653