Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Wealth by Andrew Carnegie
Wealth by Andrew Carnegie
Andrew carnegie and the gospel of wealth summary
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Wealth by Andrew Carnegie
What is the American Dream? According to Webster the American Dream is the ideal according to which equality of opportunity permits any American to aspire to high attainment and material success.
Andrew Carnegie is the epitome of the American Dream because he is a classic example of rags to riches success story. He seemed to be touched by an angel. No matter what was wrong with the world, Andrew Carnegie was to consistently capitalize on success.
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1835. “Protected by proud and self-sacrificing parents, Andrew may not have known in these years what real poverty was…”(Wall, Andrew Carnegie)
Andrew Carnegie’s formal education ended after elementary school, the family's respect for books and learning ensured that Carnegie's education would continue throughout his life. Born the son of a weaver, Carnegie’s family suffered the effects of the industrial revolution. The mass production of the new steam looms left countless families out of work. To escape the depression of their hometown his family immigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1848.
At the age of thirteen, Carnegie began his new life in America as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory. Through a connection from his uncle, Carnegie was offered a job as a messenger boy and operator for the Telegraph Office. From the promotion of his new job, Carnegie became acquainted with Pittsburgh’s most
Well-known men.
While employed by the Telegraph Office Carnegie met Thomas A. Scott, the superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who offered him a job. It was while being employed by Scott, that he was given a proposal to invest in the Adams Express Company. Carnegie was able to convince his mother to mortgage their home and loan him $500 to begin his first investment.
In 1865 Carnegie left Pennsylvania Railroad after 12 years to concentrate on his own businesses, the first being the Keystone Bridge Company, which made iron and steel. Carnegie surrounded himself with intelligent advisors, made heavy investments in new equipment, and maintained his ownership stake in all his enterprises, enabling him to exponentially increase his wealth.
During his trips to business trips Carnegie he came to meet steel-makers. At about age 38, he began concentrating on steel, founding the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Works near Pittsburgh, which would eventually evolve into the Carnegie Steel Company.
In the 1870s Carnegie's new company built the first steel plants in the United States to use the new Bessemer steel-making process, borrowed from Britain.
Andrew Carnegie came over to this country in 1848, with his family in the hopes of finding a better life for themselves. At age 14, Carnegie became a courier in a telegraph office. Later, he became involved with the railroad industry and soon was Superintendent of the railroad in Pittsburgh. By the age of 30 he had an annual income of $50,000. Carnegie then left the Pennsylvania Railroad and started concentrating on steel. He would eventually open the Carnegie Steel Company. He was introduced to a new process called the Bessemer process for his steel. At first Carnegie was not sure of this new process but took a chance and adopted it into his company.
The roots of Carnegie's internal conflicts were planted in Dunfermline, Scotland, where he was born in 1835, the son of a weaver and political radical who instilled in young Andrew the values of political and economic equality. His family's poverty, however, taught Carnegie a different lesson. When the Carnegies emigrated to America in 1848, Carnegie determined to bring prosperity to his family. He worked many small jobs which included working for the Pennsylvania Railroad where he first recognized the importance of steel.
He went to London in 1872, saw the new Bessemer method of producing steel, and returned to the United States to build a million-dollar steel plant. Foreign competition was kept out by a high tariff conveniently set by Congress, and by 1880 Carnegie was producing 10,000 tons of steel a month, making $1 1/2 million a year in profit. By 1900 he was making $40 million a year, and that year, at a dinner party, he agreed to sell his steel company to J. P. Morgan. He scribbled the price on a note: $492,000,000.”
Growing up as a young boy in Scotland, Carnegie's family was not very wealthy. They immigrated to America where Carnegie went from working as a bobbin boy, making $1.20 per hour, to making millions of dollars later in his life. Carnegie did not become wealthy by unethical means, as a Robber Baron would. Instead he worked very hard and wise to get to where he was during that time. Andrew Carnegie came from "rags to riches" in his lifetime and it paid off.
To understand Carnegie before he became a wealthy man, he grew up poor working for $1.20 a week (Document LV). At the age of 50 years, he took a risk by investing in a package delivery company. His gamble paid off and he gained money to start his company, Carnegie’s Steel Company. Eventually, his company grew and caused
When Andrew Carnegie was younger, he worked in a cotton mill, in which his weekly salary was $1.20. After his job at the cotton mill, he became the manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad company. As he got older, he realized the importance of iron and steel to the American economy, and he began to produce his own. Steel-producing companies tried to compete with Carnegie’s business. He made several efforts to lower the cost of
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland on November 25, 1835. Even though he had come from a family that was not very educated, they believed that books and learning were important. As a teenager in 1848, Carnegie moved with his family to the United States and lived in Pennsylvania. After a couple years, he found a job working for Pennsylvania Railroad in 1853. Under the assistance of a railroad official, Carnegie was able to learn much about business and the railroad industry. The next decade of his life was dedicated towards the steel industry.
However, Andrew became a very wealthy, respected and famous man later on in life. In 1848, his family moved to America for a new life, and at that time Andrew was 12. His family moved first to New York, then they moved to Allegheny, Pennsylvania. In Allegheny, Pennsylvania, he and his father worked at Anchor Cotton Mills. At age 14, Andrew quit work at the cotton factory and his uncle helped him get a new job as a messenger at Atlantic & Ohio Telegraph Company.
Andrew Carnegie, who was an extremely astute businessman, founder of a great steel empire, and a very generous philanthropist, was born in Dumferline, Scotland on November 25, 1835. His father William Carnegie was a weaver in his cottage. His mother Mary Morrison was a housewife. Because of the growth of textile mills, William Carnegie found it very difficult to earn money, so he decided at this time his family would emigrate to the U.S., settling in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Andrew Carnegie was forced to work at the age of 13 because his father was earning a small income.
Carnegie was the classic rags to riches story, the penniless immigrant who made it big in the land of opportunity. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and migrated to America in 1848 at the age of 13. His first job was in a cotton mill, earning a measly $1.20 each week. Carnegie was ambitious and determined though and by the next year had gotten a job in a Pittsburg telegraph office. It was here he got his foot in the door to the business of Pittsburg. This allowed him to begin a job at the Pennsylvania Railroad as a secretary to the railroad official, Thomas Scott. By making wise choices, taking contro...
Carnegie's first job was a telegraph messenger boy, and later upgraded to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as a telegraph operator. His persevering work allowed him to quickly advance through the company, and he became the superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division. He continued making investments and made good profits throughout the civil war, and finally left Pennsylvania Railroad and started his own iron companies, eventually Keystone Bridge Works and Union Ironworks.
Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835, in Dunfermline, Scotland. In 1848, the Carnegie family moved to America in search of better economic opportunities and settled in Allegheny City Pennsylvania. Andrew Carnegie found employment as a bobbin boy at a cotton factory, earning $1.20 a week. Ambitious and hard-working, he went on to hold a series of jobs, including messenger in a telegraph office and secretary and telegraph operator for the superintendent of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1859, Carnegie succeeded his boss as railroad division superintendent. While in this position, he made profitable investments in a variety of businesses, including coal, iron, oil companies, and a manufacturer of railroad sleeping cars. After leaving his post with the railroad in 1865, Carnegie continued in the business world. With the U.S. railroad industry then entering a period of rapid growth, he expanded his railroad-related investments by having an iron bridge building company and a telegraph firm, often using his connections to win insider contracts. By the time he was in his early 30s, Carnegie had become a very wealthy man. In the early 1870s, Carnegie co-founded his first steel company. Over the next few decades, he created a steel empire, maximizing profits and minimizing inefficiencies through ownership of factories, raw materials and tran...
"The American Dream" is that dream of a nation in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with options for each according to capacity or accomplishments. It is a dream of social stability in which each man and each woman shall be able to achieve to the fullest distinction of which they are essentially competent, and be distinguish by others for what they are, despite of the incidental conditions of birth or stance. The American Dream is often something that humanity wonders about. What is the American dream? Many people discover success in a range of things. There are many different definitions of the American Dream. However, the American Dream embraces prosperity, personal safety, and personal liberty. The American dream is a continually fluctuating set of ideals, reflecting the ideas of an era.
Andrew Carnegie a Scotland born immigrant, traveled to America when he was in his preteens. He worked at a cotton factory delivering buttons and he worked hard and never gave up or slacked on hard work. According to James Henretta, in his book America: A Concise History, “Arriving from Scotland as a poor twelve-year-old in 1848, Carnegie found work as an errand boy for the Pennsylvania railroad and rapidly scaled the managerial ladder.” James Henretta, America: A Concise History (New York: Bedfort/St. Martins, 2002), 498. His hard work eventually paid off when he eventually became a superintendent at the young age of 24. A Colonel named James Anderson opened his library to young working boys to help educate themselves. According to Andrew
This struck Carnegie with confusion because he didn’t really plan anything important to do with his money but one thing. Andrew Carnegie was a philanthropist. A philanthropist is a person who generously donates their money to good causes. Carnegie believed what all philanthropists believed in. Philanthropists believe in not keeping money for themselves but to give it to the less fortunate. Carnegie would rather give money to public services rather than his family. He stated, “Why should men leave great fortunes to their children? If this is done from affection, is this not misguided affection?”(Document B 2). He now knew what his main objective was as a philanthropist that gained all the money in the country. Andrew Carnegie himself stated, “The duty of the man of wealth (is to) set an example of modest...living...:;and...to consider all surplus revenues...as trust funds… to produce the most beneficial results for the community - the man of wealth thus becoming the… agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer: doing for them better than they would or for themselves…”(Document B 4). So from what you can tell so far about philanthropy you knew that he would give away his money. He once gave away approximately $350,695,653 (Document C). It shows that he’s not your average and greedy rich person and would rather give