8.1An industrial colossus

American industry exploded after the Civil War. Abundant resources, a growing labor force, new technologies, and a national railroad network combined to make the United States the world's leading industrial economy by 1900. Steel, oil, and railroads formed the backbone of this transformation.

Towering entrepreneurs dominated whole industries: Andrew Carnegie in steel, John D. Rockefeller in oil, financiers like J. P. Morgan in banking. Admirers called them "captains of industry" for building the modern economy; critics called them "robber barons" for crushing competition and exploiting workers. Their vast trusts and monopolies concentrated wealth and power to a degree that alarmed many Americans and provoked demands for reform.