Human nature has been a topic philosophers and commoners alike have debated since
before Plato’s time. Despite this, no definitive conclusion has been reached, to this day. Is this
so unexpected? The qualities and intricacies of human nature have defied rational explanations,
simply because it is intrinsically impossible to define anything that is never the same, constantly
changing. The human race is a fickle bunch, defined only by their collective organized chaos.
The paradoxical nature of our dominant race has persisted even in times of political and social
upheaval, the time period between 1875 and 1900 being no exception. Capitalists make or
break such a time of economical trials and tribulations, and, holding true to the inherent values
of human nature, such people became either admirable “captains of industry” or corrupt “robber
barons”.
The South greatly resembled bombed-out Berlin and Dresden in 1945—the devastation
was overpoweringly vast. Many believed that this was only what the traitorous Confederates
deserved. However, like a phoenix, the South began to rise from the fallow soil of rebellion. In
Document B, Warner described the change as being “marvelous…wide awake to business,
excited and even astonished at the development of its own immense resources…It cannot be
too strongly impressed upon the public mind that the South…is marching with the North in the
same purpose of wealth by industry.” Warner seemed to be struck with awe at the changes
wreaked in the shattered South—and all of this due to the economic cloudburst fueled with the
quenching rain of the capitalists who invested in this barren land. A prime example, Carnegie
proclaimed that it “is held to be the duty of the man of wealth…to consider all surplus revenues
which come to him simply as trust funds…which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce
the most beneficial results for the community” (Document C). Without these “captains of…