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Carnegie

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Carnegie

Wiley,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Andrew Carnegie was progressive and controlling, eager for money and philanthropic, a steel baron and an American icon.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

In more than 600 pages, author Peter Krass delivers an almost overwhelming volume of facts about Andrew Carnegie, who certainly merits detailed study. Much in his life and work remains relevant today. The book is marred by frequent editorial asides and judgments. However, a man emerges out of the mountain of facts who was unusually sensitive to the impact of new technologies and extraordinarily able to position himself to take advantage of them. Carnegie was a man of contrasts, ruthless, hypocritical, forceful and diffident, idealistic and amoral, driven to amass a fortune and philanthropic. getAbstract appreciates the effort behind this full scale biography of Carnegie, the first one offered for almost 30 years, and recommends getting to know this American icon.

Summary

His Times

Between Andrew Carnegie’s birth in 1835 and his death in 1919 came the Industrial Revolution, capitalism, Marxism, the Franco-Prussian War, the Spanish-American War, the First World War, the invention of telecommunications, the construction of railroads, the Bessemer process in steel making, the invention of the automobile, the invention of the airplane, the victory of (broadly defined) democracy over aristocracy, several key presidencies and the rise of the United States as the world’s dominant power.

Carnegie had a hand in most of these developments. Hailing from radical stock in Scotland, he agitated for democracy, wrote in support of workers’ rights and unionization, preached against aristocracy, worked as an entrepreneur in the telegraph and railroad businesses before forging his empire in steel and was, in short, at five feet and three inches, a man of his times.

Born in the town of Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1835, Carnegie began life in relatively comfortable circumstances compared to other children of working class families. His nickname was Andra. His father, Will Carnegie, was a damask weaver, practicing one of the most demanding and highly...

About the Author

Peter Krass is the author of The Book of Business Wisdom, The Book of Leadership Wisdom and The Book of Investing Wisdom, and has contributed to Investor’s Business Daily and Across the Board.

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