<Dl> <Dd> Robber Barons , standing for a Gilded Age of corruption , monopoly , and rampant individualism . Their corporations were the Octopus , devouring all in its path . In the twentieth century and the twenty - first they became entrepreneurs , necessary business revolutionaries , ruthlessly changing existing practices and demonstrating the protean nature of American capitalism . Their new corporations also transmuted and became manifestations of the `` Visible Hand , '' a managerial rationality that eliminated waste , increased productivity , and brought bourgeois values to replace those of financial buccaneers . </Dd> </Dl>
nickname given to railroad executives due to shady practices of their businesses
Robber Barons