Faceless Men

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The source explains that the term 'robber baron' derives from the Raubritter (robber knights), medieval German lords who charged illegal tolls on roads or larger tolls along the Rhine river. Historian T. J. Stiles says the metaphor 'conjures up visions of titanic monopolists who crushed competitors, rigged markets, and corrupted government.' Hostile cartoonists might dress the offenders in royal garb to underscore the offense against democracy. The first such usage was against Cornelius Vanderbilt in a February 9, 1859 New York Times article, after he took money from high-priced, government-subsidized shippers to not compete on their routes. A critic drew a political comic depicting Vanderbilt as a feudal robber baron extracting a toll. The source does not provide any narrative history for a group called 'Faceless Men'.

In Their Own Story

The origin of the term 'robber baron' is traced to the medieval Raubritter, but its first American application was against Cornelius Vanderbilt on February 9, 1859, in The New York Times. Vanderbilt's private shipping company ran routes at a fraction of the price charged by government-subsidized shippers, making a large profit without taxpayer subsidy. The state-funded shippers then paid Vanderbilt money to not ship on their route. A critic drew a political comic depicting Vanderbilt as a feudal robber baron extracting a toll. In 2012, Bruce Springsteen performed in Europe singing about bankers as 'greedy thieves' and 'robber barons'. The source offers no narrative involving faceless individuals or a specific fictional group by that name.

Reader's Guide

The term 'robber baron' was first applied by 19th-century muckrakers as social criticism to wealthy, powerful, and unethical businessmen who used exploitative practices including unfettered consumption of natural resources, influencing government, wage slavery, squashing competition by acquiring competitors, and creating monopolies or trusts. Matthew Josephson's 1934 book The Robber Barons argued these industrialists played leading roles in an age of industrial revolution but were 'branded with the motive of private gain.' Hal Bridges said the term represented the idea that business leaders from about 1865 to 1900 were 'a set of avaricious rascals who habitually cheated and robbed investors and consumers, corrupted government, fought ruthlessly among themselves.' The source does not provide a guide or classification system for 'Faceless Men'.

Did You Know?

• The term 'robber baron' was first applied to Cornelius Vanderbilt in a February 9, 1859 New York Times article.
• The term derives from the medieval German Raubritter (robber knights), who charged illegal tolls on roads or larger tolls along the Rhine river.
• Matthew Josephson's 1934 book The Robber Barons popularized the term during the Great Depression.
• In 1975, Stanford University students voted to use 'Robber Barons' as their sports team nickname, but administrators disallowed it as disrespectful to founder Leland Stanford.
• The term has been used to characterize Russian oligarchs allied to Boris Yeltsin and leaders of Big Tech companies like Jeff Bezos.