Some of them were great philanthropists who generously donated to causes of their choosing some of the fortune they had amassed by exploiting and disenfranchising vast populations. Those I named were chief among the robber barons, and some of their descendants, perhaps most notably the Rockefellers, tried to distance themselves from or atone for the means by which their forefathers had come by their wealth.
This cartoon[1] shows "infant" Roosevelt battling the Rockefeller and JP Morgan "serpents". No, they weren't the good guys by any means, despite their philanthropic deeds. They most certainly industrialized the US, but so did Stalin in the USSR (though most would agree that the American robber barons were better than Stalin :)).
This cartoon[1] shows "infant" Roosevelt battling the Rockefeller and JP Morgan "serpents". No, they weren't the good guys by any means, despite their philanthropic deeds. They most certainly industrialized the US, but so did Stalin in the USSR (though most would agree that the American robber barons were better than Stalin :)).
[1]: http://newsjournalist.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/the-infant...