Andrew Carnegie’s parents left Scotland due to a severe economic slump when America slid into recession and stopped buying imported Scottish Linen. Linen was the main industry of Dumfermline, Scotland. His father was a handloom weaver who was often out of work. So they decided to move to western Pennsylvania where relatives had emigrated years before in hopes of a better life.

Andrew was thirteen years of age when his family settled in Cresson, PA, near Pittsburgh. He was startled by the bustling cities activity and almost instantly saw the great potential of his new home.

With a father who still failed to get work, Andrew looked for his own job. He landed one in a factory. He soon afterwards found a better job. In the 1850’s, before telephones, messages were electronically wired to a telegraph machine in Morse code. An interpreter would translate the Morse code into text on sheets of paper. A messenger would then deliver this to the intended recipient. He applied for and received a messenger job at a busy office. He memorized streets and people so he became very quick at delivering these messages.

A point not to overlook was his affable personality. He was quite friendly and gregarious. On his deliveries he met a lot of people. But his intellect helped launch him into a promotion as the telegraphic operator, interpreting Morse coded messages.

This experience landed him a job as a telegraphic operator and assistant to Thomas Scott, one of the powerful Pennsylvania Railroad heads. He became a friend and confident of Thomas Scott. This relationship was the big break in Andrew’s life. Scott let Andrew into one of the best kept secrets of the rich in the late 1800’s –the stock market. Scott knew the best publicly held companies and always offered Andrew a piece of the pie. Andrew received tremendous dividend payments from these investments. He also earned a promotion to superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In this position, he learned all about the Rail Road.

After about three years he left the Rail Road and focused on buying companies that supported the Rail Road. So he bought Oil, Coal, and Iron businesses. He understood that steel was about to become a major U.S. industry. So he adroitly turned his energies to the Steel industry.

He knew that Steel would become one of world’s greatest assets so he created Edgar Thomas Steel works in Braddock, PA. In the 1860’s steel work was commanded by skilled workman who knew exactly how to mix the components to eradicate impurities. Correspondingly, these skilled workmen got paid what they wanted. Andrew heard of a new way which would strip this power from these skilled workmen. So he traveled to England where they were already using a process called the Bessemer process. This process involved containers which blew air through pig iron which expelled the impurities that the iron contained.

Andrew learned that he could keep tract of his businesses by accurate accounting. This led him into a life of semi retirement at the age of 40. He moved to New York and followed his company from accounting reports while letting his brother and others manage the company. While in New York he sought the company of the wealthy and educated. It seems that he had to prove himself in intellectual circles. He often debated his companions on various issues but always with humor and an agreeable attitude. He also pursued a career in the literary field writing a few books and numerous articles for magazines. He uncharacteristically wrote articles in support of unions. But while unions were fighting for eight hour days his workers were forced to work 12 hour days.

He traveled to Europe numerous times and caroused with Europe’s elite people. He not only wanted sophisticated friendships with these aristocrats but also knew these people could provide profitable business.

He often said he was lucky. In some ways he was right. But he was hard working and always fighting for the cheapest way to produce steel. He benefited from the protective tariffs of the 19th Century (which kept foreign steel out of America). He also benefited from the frenzy to use steel to produce railroad tracks which the U.S. government paid to him. This demand for steel by the U.S. government made him one of the wealthiest men in America.

As he aged he spent his living days trying to disperse his wealth throughout society. Two of his main philanthropic projects were the building of numerous libraries throughout the world and providing needed organs to many churches. He also set up and funded the Carnegie Institute for Science as well as museums. His one huge goal however was to establish World peace. He lobbied President Theodore Roosevelt, President Taft, Kaiser Wilhelm II and various English politicians to form a “League of Peace” in order to arbitrate conflicts between nations. All though they gave him an ear they never took him seriously. He was a pompous “know it all” and just as this attitude disturbed the greats of his day it left me with a slight dislike of this late 19th C and early 20th C titan.

I studied at Carnegie Mellon University for a number of years (Go Tartans!), so I had a personal interest in this book. In fact, I think I might have bought it at the campus bookstore.

The main thing I remember is being impressed by Carnegie's work schedule.

He was a master of delegation.

He would leave all the day to day work to Henry Frick and others and spend his time traveling the world and engaging in philanthropic endeavors.

He would only "work" for 3 hours a day by answering letters from 8am to 11am.

What a life!

This biography was incredibly detailed (at 801 pages it would have to be!) I learned so much about this accomplished and charitable man. The ending (regarding his quest for international peace) became a bit monotonous to me. But the rest of the book was captivating, especially the portion about the Homestead Strike. I really admire his work in bringing libraries to so many communities. His view on wealth and how it should be accrued so that it could be donated was really intriguing. He would have been an interesting person to know! And I would have loved to see Skibo or his other properties.

An exhausting biography of one of the titans of American industry, a billionaire who made his fortune on the backs of the toil of his workers he exploited, but also one who opposed his country's dalliance with imperialism.

And he would have been a dumb beauty pageant contestant in another life for trying to make one thing possible: world peace. Too bad he didn't get the Nobel for it. But seeing your name on numerous institutions and leaving a legacy of philantrophy? Not bad.

This biography of Andrew Carnegie leans too much on source material to try to prevent the facts. So much of it is direct quotes from letters. I see the job of the biographer as paraphrasing and interpreting events, something that Nasaw seems reluctant to do.

In the end, this is just a chronological recounting of Carnegie's life. The book would benefit greatly from a more thorough reading of source material from Henry Frick and Charles Schwab, for example. This is certainly not the final book to be written about Carnegie. The book would have also benefitted from an even modest discussion of the legacy of Carnegie's foundations that continue today.

David Nasaw takes the story of Andrew Carnegie to new insights and heights by digging through the letters and correspondence that the “Star-Spangled Scottsman” wrote to numerous figures over a 6 decade period.
This book disputes, empirically a lot of exaggerated praise of Carnegie’s entrepreneurialism as what propelled him to the richest man in the world. Rather it shows how protective tariffs, pricing cartels and his relationship with Washington created an almost competition-free environment to create an unassailable lead in steel that culminated in His cashing out at the turn of the 2oth century with the creation of U.S Steel.
The fascinating characteristic of Carnegie was how he was able to live effectively on both sides of the Atlantic, shuttling between New York and Scotland, at a time when this was not so easy. This goes to show the extent of his wealth, and his insatiable appetite for the finer things in life.

This book is peppered with insights into a kaleidoscope of principles from philanthropy, competition , antitrust, business, wealth and the complex nature of the wee little Scotsman who was at the forefront of creating what is today the modern USA. This is a must read for anyone who is serious about peering into history to extract key lessons to propel us forward as 21st century citizens of the world .

There is some incredible stuff in here that helped me contextualize the tension between labor and management that predates labor's rise and steady decline. Carnegie was a complex man; he was capable of incredible acts of generosity and truly believed that he had to give away his fortune to improve society. But he was also a ruthless industrialist: his use of the Pinkertons to suppress a labor strike had lethal consequences and tarnished his legacy.

Back in the late 1970's while attending John Jay college of Criminal Justice I would have dinner every Friday night at this great little restaurant on 57th street and Park Ave. I always ordered the London Broil, which was simply the best, a couple of beers (back in 1978 in was legal to drink at eighteen, not that it would have stopped me either way) and after leaving a great tip, 3 dollars on a 7 dollar bill, I would walk across the street and look at the coming events at "Carnegie Hall," not that I could afford to go to any event but I did love looking and walking around this magnificant building.

After moving to California in the early eighties, I always remembered fondly the little restaurant with the wonderful London Broil... So much so that I brought my lovely wife there a few times while visiting New York, but never did I think of going across the street to "Carnegie Hall." Strange, because by that time I could have afforded tickets. In fact, I never even thought about "Carnegie Hall," or the man responsible for building the music hall, Andrew Carnegie, until some forty years later when I read David McCullough's "The Johnstown Flood" and Mr. Carnegie and his Steel company were mentioned in the book.

It was after reading Mr. McCullough's book that I decided to pick up the highly praised, extremely large biography named "Andrew Carnegie" by David Nasaw. To say that Mr. Carnegie was different, would be an understatement. At one point in his life he was considered the "richest man" in the world... The Steel business and a few shady deals paid really well.

To say that Mr. Carnegie was generous would be a large exaggeration. At the time of his death, he would have given away what would amount to the fortunes of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezo's combined. And who are those that benefitted from his largess: Libraries, he built over two thousand across the United States and the world... Museums, Schools, Music halls, Convention Centers, The Carnegie Foundation for World Peace, The Carnegie Foundation for Scientific Research, The Mount Wilson Observatory... And the list just keeps going on and on.

Mr. Carnegie's goal in life, after accumulating a massive fortune, was to give it all away before he died, and for the most part he did. He was far from a perfect man. In fact, the men that worked in his Steel Mills might not be very kind in their appraisal of the man.

Yet, his imprint on American and world cultures, his pursuit of world peace, and his relationships with Presidents of the United States makes him one of the most influential, if not controversial figures, of the last 150 years.

Joseph Conrad wrote, "That we go through life with eyes half closed," and in the case of Andrew Carnegie I passed through six decades with eyes fully closed because I have passed many of his cultural and scientific Institution that he had built and didn't take notice, which is amazing because they're everywhere.

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND this book.

Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw is the definitive biography of one of the wealthiest members of the Gilded Age. Carnegie was a rough and tumble business who rose from immigrant delivering wires (telegraph messages) to be king of the Steel Industry. He grew his skill set and took the preservation of capital to reinvest again and again to amass a fortune never before seen in American history. He was downright brutal to labor (despite his view that he was a friend by offering a sliding pay scale). His managers are equal famous from Henry Frick to Charles Schwab including his relations with them that proved both tumultuous and fruitful. He would write the Gospel of Wealth and believed in a potentially somewhat perverse way that he had to accumulate as much as he could so he could give away more. Even if this mean driving wages down for his employees so he could gain more to build services for them. His business acumen is without question and demonstrated time and time again throughout this 800 page volume. As noted by other reviewers this is a well written book that will leave you both impressed, loathing, and pitying Andrew Carnegie all within the same book. Masterfully done and if you are interested in the gilded age you can’t go wrong.

You could not say that this is a can’t-put-it-down biography, I guess. It did take me almost a year to read it, sometimes putting it down for weeks at a time while I focused on some other book. And yet I always returned to it with eagerness and anticipation. Nasaw paints a very vivid picture of the human person that Andrew Carnegie was, and he portrays some of the complexity that makes his subject an intriguing figure, especially in our own time, when the financial likes of Carnegie are not quite so rare and the personality quirks not as well-known or, often, as respectable. Not that I’ve often thought of the business-oriented cutthroat Carnegie as particularly lovable. But it is interesting to consider this life in comparison with that of the modern-day mogul whose biography I read in the midst of this one - Elon Musk. A theme of selfish competitiveness seems to run through many of these biographies of hyper-successful business people, yet it is intriguing to see Carnegie’s rather naive and condescending commitment to improve the lot of the masses and his strident peace-seeking. I would have preferred to have learned more about how Carnegie built his empire, but that is a minor quibble in a book that gives a very vivid and uncompromising look at the complicated, yet at the same time simple, man that Carnegie was. I will tell you that the last 200 pages of this biography are more interesting and compelling than the first 200, and you will come away from the book with a weird respect for a man who spent his latter years striving with determination to put an end to warfare after building his career on the premise that it was OK, even admirable, for him to work no more than four hours a day while expecting the people employed in his factories to work 12. There is very little poetry in Nasaw’s description of Carnegie’s life, but ample detail and research to give you a thought-provoking picture of who the man was and how he affected the times in which he lived.

Most biographers, especially ones who spend years and years writing about the same person, tend to fall into one of two camps: They either eulogize their subject, glossing over the inevitable flaws and mistakes, or they go the other way and end up writing a full-scale takedown. I think that author David Nasaw did a commendable job here of walking the line and not tipping the scales too far one way or another.

All humans have positives and negatives to them. Andrew Carnegie also had both, just too much greater extremes. On the one hand he was one of the greatest businessmen in history. Every major move he made in the steel business was ahead of its time and took advantage of the changing landscape in Gilded Age America. On the other hand, was he actually that great at business? American Steel benefited enormously from tariffs at the time which priced out steel from other countries. For most of his career running the steel business, Carnegie was also fairly hands off. Lieutenants like Henry Clay Frick and Charles Schwab may actually have known more about the business than Carnegie did, and certainly did more of the work. But whether he was actually a business genius or not is not necessarily the most important question that readers are left with. He was there at the right time and right place, and like most ultra successful people, luck was a pretty big factor.

What is far more troubling about Carnegie is his unambiguous hypocrisy. He differentiated himself from many of the "robber barons" of the age by his devotion to philanthropy. This was not just a donation here and a donation there. He pledged to give away all his money before he died, and ultimately was able to give away about 350 million with 20 million left over. He didn't have to do this, and there's no doubt that it is a positive. On the other hand, how could someone who was so concerned with the greater good and helping others through philanthropy be so abusive to the employees at his steel mills?

While profits exceeded 30 million dollars, he was paying steel workers less than three dollars a day. Carnegie would say that men should start from that low level of wages (like he had), and work their way up. Men should develop their minds and educate themselves to rise above their circumstances. How could they do that though, when he was making them work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week? Workers went on strike numerous times for better wages or an 8 hour day, and Carnegie hired Pinkertons (essentially armed guards) to help break strikes. In the case of a strike at Homestead, many people died when violence erupted.

How could a man who worked about 3 hours a day insist that his employees work for 12? How could he regularly decide that wages needed to be lowered to squeeze out more profit. It was all because of his ability to compartmentalize things to an insane degree. Carnegie knew he was going to give all his money away, therefore he needed as much as possible because it was for the greater good. He felt he needed every cent of profit he could acquire, because he could invest it with compounding interest and spread it to the masses. As a result he was willfully oblivious to the plight of the workers that were helping him make so much money, and this shortcoming will rightfully always tarnish his legacy.

Carnegie was somewhat of a poser, trying to project himself as an intellectual and great thinker. At the age of 30 he already had 75 million dollars and wrote a memo to himself about how he would go to Oxford within 5 years to pursue further education. He never did, but did end up writing many books with his advice to the world. The impression I got from Nasaw was that none of these books were very well written, but they sold well because people had interest in hearing from one of the world's richest men, and he also had the money to pay for his own publishing and distribution. Authors and politicians would listen to him, but more because of his money than because they thought him a true genius or ally. This is highlighted most clearly by his relationship with Teddy Roosevelt.

But despite all the qualities that made him unlikable, I still found myself sympathetic to him at the end. I've never read a biography where my opinion of the subject shifted more times during the book than this one. For most of the middle section I thought he was an awful hypocrite. I preferred someone like Cornelius Vanderbilt who cared almost exclusively about the pursuit of money, and never tried to pretend to be a great thinker/philanthropist, because at least Vanderbilt could be honest about his intentions. But at the end of the book Carnegie started a failed quest to assure world peace. He worked tirelessly to try to slow down the naval arms race going on, and set up a system where countries would agree to arbitration rather than military conflict when there was a dispute. Whether his ideas were workable or not, he was pushing for them 5 years before World War 1 broke out, and so many lives could have been saved had he been able to get somewhere with it.

Very long, very interesting, sometimes highly entertaining, and occasionally a bit tedious. I liked this book, but there were times in the middle when I wondered if it would ever get done.

Mr. Carnegie was an overly confident man that had his already ample ego augmented by a lot of money. Probably the second-richest man in American history, Carnegie's is the ultimate rags to riches story.

For me the most interesting part of the was the end. Carnegie passionately took up several causes during his life, (libraries, church-organs, anti-imperialism in the Philippines) one of which was world peace. For the last two decades of his life he pushed every politician he could influence (financially) towards disarmament and treaties. Carnegie was confident that mankind would evolve beyond warfare and through his efforts we would say goodbye to war forever. At the dawn of WWI he was incredulous and eventually despondent. He died in 1919, very much aware of how impossible this goal really was.

Often the sign of a good (or long) biography is when you feel like you lost a family member when they die. I finished the book, sad and missing this odd, eccentric, often arrogant, manipulative, and unrealistic little old man.