ABSTRACT
On the eve of World War I, the Guggenheim brothers, the grandsons of an impoverished Swiss immigrant, commanded a mining empire second to none in the world. While it is easy to locate the most prominent physical features of that empire in the great mineral ranges of North and South America, it is more of a challenge to identify the sources of the Guggenheims’ extraordinary success. But upon close examination it becomes clear that the brothers built their empire on a commitment to relentless technical innovation, access to the financial riches of New York and London, alliances with foreign political leaders, and their innovations in labor relations, which allowed them to address the growing radicalization of the working class. It is at the same time ironic that, in the end, some of these same factors would help drive the Guggenheims from the pinnacle of the mining world. This essay examines how the brothers were able to harness technology, financial, and political power, and the management of labor in building powerful corporate interests first in North and then in South America, and it will also consider how two of those forces contributed to their downfall.1
