Industrial Experts

This week in our Honors History class, we began preparing for the final exam.  For our midterm back in January, we were given two hours to write two essays.  We were given time to prepare the notes two weeks prior to midterm week.  However in May, we finished a five page research paper and our teacher didn't want us to have to do what we did for midterms.  Instead, we will have an actual exam.  But, from last week until Finals, we will be studying new lessons and creating notes and questions to be put on the final.  For each lesson, the class divided amongst our groups has to create 40 questions each week.  This week's lesson was called Carnegie and Rockefeller.  To begin the unit, the class made a Google Doc accessed by everyone in the class, and the groups were assigned certain categories.  We got the notes from watching a series of video clips on ABC-CLIO.  The categories were main ideas, key people, important events, and essential terms.   After taking the notes, the class had to come up with an essential question for the lesson, which was 'How did the actions of monopolistic leaders such as Carnegie and Rockefeller affect the common American workers?'

John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839.  He was a part of the creation of the petroleum industry.  He was a strong supporter of the Union army in the Civil War.  Also, he donated nearly $500 million dollars to advancements of education and medicine.  He became a business powerhouse by 1870.  He then founded the Standard Oil company which became a monopolistic corporation in oil production.  He continued to find ways to make more money and put other oil producers out of business clinching a nationwide monopoly.  As he proceeded to do this, the public started to think that he was making all of this money and trying to be the only producer just for his own good.  People also believed that he was trying to be a business icon with the motive of not doing good for the public, just for himself and trying to end his competition.  In an interview with William Hoster, he says "I believe the gift of god is the power to make money."  He also said "I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money."  This statement shows a rich non charismatic man who just wants power but while he made this much, yes he put towards himself but also to charities as he did prior to 1870s.  He also did provide jobs to the millions of Americans while at the same time putting so many others out of work.  But donating 500 million to charity is a huge contribution.  I believe he did help American workers because while he may have made other companies lose jobs, he certainly did provide much more. 

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish rich man in the United States.  He began his life in poverty and as he got older into adulthood, he became more powerful as he controlled the U.S. steel industry.  He had a huge role in the telegraph as he wad the first man to be able to operate messages by differentiating wire transmission sounds.  He now could read messages via sound.  He became an operator of the country's telegraph lines and then eventually becoming the superintendent of the military telegraph lines.  He was a coordinator of rail transportation for the Union in the Civil War.  Once he got into the Steel Industry in the 1870s, he gained popularity amongst workers and people because there was a huge need for steel.  It boosted during the war and he became one of the leaders in production in the United States.  He provided millions of jobs as his corporation became more powerful.  This also took other jobs away but there were other popular steel companies in the U.S. that weren't selling prior to Carnegie's existence in the industry.  However, once his company boosted, so did theirs but they still were not as popular as him though very high up on the ladder.  Carnegie was a huge creator of jobs for the American workers.  He was also fair to the workers in terms of conditions and working hours.  He was a much more decent man than Carnegie was in terms of fairness to the workers.  Carnegie provided stable paying and well conditioned but very physical jobs for American workers and he had a positive impact on the commoners of the nation.