Carnegie

One of the major figures in American history, Andrew Carnegie was a ruthless businessman who made his fortune in the steel industry and ultimately gave most of it away. He used his wealth to ascend the world's political stage, influencing the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. In retirement, Carnegie became an avid promoter of world peace, only to be crushed emotionally by World War I. In this compelling biography, Peter Krass reconstructs the complicated life of this titan who came to power in America's Gilded Age. He transports the reader to Carnegie's Pittsburgh, where hundreds of smoking furnaces belched smoke into the sky and the air was filled with acrid fumes . . . and mill workers worked seven-day weeks while Carnegie spent months traveling across Europe. Carnegie explores the contradictions in the life of the man who rose from lowly bobbin boy to build the largest and most profitable steel company in the world. Krass examines how Carnegie became one of the greatest philanthropists ever known-and earned a notorious reputation that history has yet to fully reconcile with his remarkable accomplishments. "An objective and readable portrait of a fascinating, conflicted man." --Dallas Morning News Critical Praise for Carnegie "Seizing the mantle that J.F. Wall has held since 1970 as Andrew Carnegies definitive biographer, Peter Krass has written a superb new account of the legendary industrialist and philanthropists remarkable life." Barrons "An objective and readable portrait of a fascinating, conflicted man." Dallas Morning News One of the major figures in American history, Andrew Carnegie was a ruthless businessman who made his fortune in the steel industry and ultimately gave most of it away. In this compelling biography, Peter Krass reconstructs the complicated life of this titan who came to power in Americas Gilded Age, exploring the contradictions in the man who rose from lowly bobbin boy to build the largest and most profitable steel company in the world. Krass examines how Carnegie became one of the greatest philanthropists ever knownand earned a notorious reputation that history has yet to fully reconcile with his remarkable accomplishments. Selected by Library Journal as one of the best business biographies of 2002 Machine generated contents note: 1 Flesh and Blood 2 Odyssey to America 3 $1.20 a Week 4 The Scotch Devil 5 Tree of Knowledge 6 Blood Money and Black Gold 7 An Iron Coup 8 Many Hands, Many Cookie Jars 9 Bridges to Glory 10 Epiphany of Legend 11 Template for Domination 12 Rekindling the Flame 13 War against the Steel Aristocracy 14 An Attack on Britain 15 Bleeding Hearts and Bleeding Newspapers 16 Patronizing the Peasants 17 The Pale Horse and the Gray Dress 18 Gospel of Conscience 19 Rewards from the Harrison Presidency 20 Prelude to Homestead 21 The Homestead Tragedy 22 The Great Armor Scandal 23 Seeking a Measure of Peace 24 Illegal Rebates and a Fight with Rockefeller 25 A Point of Disruption and Transition 26 The Crusades 27 UnCivil War 28 The World's Richest Man 29 Tainted Seeds 30 Human Frailty 31 The Peace Mission Begins 32 The Metamorphosis of Andrew Carnegie 33 Covert Deal with Taft 34 The Last Great Benefaction 35 House of Cards 36 The War to End All Wars. "Andrew Carnegie stands next to J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller as one of the great business leaders in United States history. Immigrating from Scotland as a child, Carnegie rose from the slums of Pittsburgh to become a steel industry titan remembered for his many philanthropic endowments, ranging from free libraries to his work toward world peace.". "The first full biography of this industrialist and philanthropist in thirty years, Carnegie delves into the mind of a generous yet ruthless man who wore many masks throughout his life. Peter Krass captures the drama behind the building of Carnegie's empire, revealing how he manipulated the rules of fair play and how he was a pioneer in philanthropy. He separates fact from the Carnegie legend by relying heavily on diaries, letters, and other writings by both primary and peripheral characters in Carnegie's life as well as on the copious Carnegie-related archives."--BOOK JACKET. One of the first American entrepreneurs to achieve massive wealth, Andrew Carnegie rose from dire poverty to become a steel baron as well as one of the greatest philanthropists in U.S. history. In this first full-scale biography of Andrew Carnegie in 30 years, Peter Krass gives us a vivid portrait of a complex man with an uncanny sense of destiny, whose unswerving belief in himself was so powerful that it swept up many of the people around him and made them millionaires, too. Taking an impartial, clear-eyed view of his subject, Krass resists the temptation to either demonize or canonize Carnegie. He penetrates the public persona of the ruthless empire builder and tireless crusader for universal literacy and world peace to show a figure full of internal conflict and contradiction who ultimately made a lasting contribution to civilization An account of the legendary industrialist and philanthropist discusses his rise from a life of poverty, uncanny sense of destiny, work for literacy and world peace, public persona as a ruthless empire builder, and struggles with internal conflict. Reprint. Explores the life and career of the industrialist who made his fortune in the steel industry, and who was also one of the nation's greatest philanthropists.