Robber baron

(noun)

A derogatory metaphor of social criticism originally applied to certain late nineteenth-century American businessmen who used unscrupulous methods to get rich.

Related Terms

Examples of Robber baron in the following topics:

  • Robber Barons and the Captains of Industry

    • The term "robber baron" was applied to powerful nineteenth-century industrialists who were viewed as having used questionable practices to amass their wealth.
    • "Robber baron" is a derogatory term used for some powerful nineteenth-century American businessmen.
    • It combines the notions of criminality ("robber") and illegitimate aristocracy ("baron").
    • Some nineteenth-century industrialists who were called "captains of industry" overlap with those called "robber barons," however.
    • Identify the qualities of a robber baron and a captain of industry

  • Freedom, Inequality, and Democracy in the Gilded Age

    • It created for the first time a class of the super-rich "captains of industry," the "Robber Barons," whose network of business, social, and family connections ruled a largely White Anglo-Saxon Protestant social world that possessed clearly defined boundaries.

  • The Gilded Age

    • Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt of the Vanderbilt family, and the prominent Astor family were labeled as "robber barons" by the public, who felt they cheated to get their money and lorded it over the common people.

  • The Railroad Strikes

    • Thomas Alexander Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad, often considered one of the first robber barons, suggested that the strikers should be given "a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread. " However, local law enforcement officers refused to fire on the strikers.

  • The XYZ Affair

    • "X" was Baron Jean-Conrad Hottinguer, "Y" was Pierre Bellamy, and "Z" was Lucien Hauteval, and the demand came during a meeting in Paris, France.

  • Fighting for Liberty

    • At the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, Baron Closen, a German officer in the French Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment, estimated the American army to be comprised of about one quarter black males.

  • Administrative Corruption

    • The leases themselves were not illegal, but Fall accepted bribes from the companies to secure the deals totaling approximately $404,000 (about $5.36 million today), including a no-interest loan of $100,000 ($1.3 million today) from Pan American oil baron Edward L.

  • The Rights of Englishmen

    • The Magna Carta, sealed in 1215 by King John after coercion from an assembly of his barons, is an English charter that limited the power of the king by guaranteeing certain rights, liberties, and privileges to the English aristocracy .

  • The Revolutionary Army at Valley Forge

    • Baron Friedrich von Steuben, a skilled Prussian drillmaster, was responsible for developing and carrying out an effective training program for Washington's troops following the winter.

  • Yalta's Legacy

    • After the failure of the amendment, Henry Strauss, 1st Baron Conesford, the Member of Parliament for Norwich, resigned his seat in protest of the British treatment of Poland.