A man of Scotland, a distinguished man citizen of the United States, and now a philanthropist devoted to the making the world around him a better place, Andrew Carnegie became famous at the turn of the twentieth century and became true rags to riches story.
Carnegie's life Started on "November 25, 1835 in Dunfermiline, Fife Scotland" (Nasaw 36)
Carnegie's Family was poor, but he still grew up in a well cultured and political family. Many of Carnegie's closest Relatives were self educated tradesmen and class activists. William Carnegie although poor had educated himself. William also was politically active and was involved with those organizing demonstration against the Corn Laws, Also he was a chartist. "William Carnegie also wrote articles for the Radical Pamphlet, Cobbett's Register."(qtd. In Nasaw 12)
He wrote about governing safety at work, which were passed many years later in the
Factory acts. He promoted the abolition of all forms of privilege, including all monarchs.
Tom Kennedy was also another influential uncle, was a radical political firebrand. "A person that did not conform to what society's standards in any shape form or fashion."(Nasaw 52)
Andrew Carnegie's mother Margaret mother taught the young Carnegie the frailty that he would one day become famous for later on in life. One day in school he quoted a proverb that his mother had repeated often "Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves" (qtd Nasaw 56) His classmates often laughed at him, unaware that the principal would one day help Andrew Carnegie to become one of the riches men in the world. Mrs. Carnegie Followed her two sisters to Pittsburgher husband took up the grueling factory work with a nearby cotton mill, but he soon quit it to return to his hard room to make to make table clothes that he sold door to door. Mrs. Carnegie once again picking the time his family was still poor. Carnegie found his mother crying about the family's struggle. Andrew, her first son, was born in Scotland in 1835 to the twenty-five year old Margaret. By the mid- 1840's, the family was sliding into object poverty. William, Margaret's husband, was a hand weaver who at the new and improving times started to dramatically lose business due to the new power driven factory looms. The family had to leave their rare house and move back to small quarters. Margaret opened a small food store to add to the family's 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...
Andrew Carnegie helped build the American steel industry. He was born in 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland, to Margaret and Will Carnegie. The Carnegies are one of the many working-class families in Dunfermline. The family left the poverty of Scotland for the possibilities in America in 1848 and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As he got older, he moved rapidly through a series of jobs with the Western Union and the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1865, he resigned from the railroad to establish his own business and eventually organized the Carnegie Steel Company, which launched the steel industry in Pittsburgh.
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 biography begins when the impoverished Carnegie family leaves their home in Scotland having been replaced by machines in the Industrial Revolution. People started sailing to America because their “old home no longer promised anything at all” (Livesay 14). They end up earning twice as much as they did in Scotland with their son Tom in school, the parents Margaret and Will shoe-binding, and Andrew working as a bobbin boy. Money earned without work was an opening to corruption in the eyes of a Republican nation and it was also assumed that hereditary wealth had caused the decline of Europe (Lena). Carnegie soon rises from poor bobbin boy to railroad superintendent, all the way to manager at the Pennsylvania Railroad. "I have made millions since, Carnegie later claimed, but none of these gave me so much happiness as my first week's earnings. I was now a helper of the family, a bread winner” (16). The background exposition on his family became crucial to understanding Carnegie’s drive to succeed. Livesay also fluently demonstrates the various professional relationships Carnegie develops throughout his life and how they affect his career. When his first investment pays a profit of $10, Carnegie discovers a whole new world of earning money from the capital. In 1865, he establishes his own business enterprises and...
Known for his contributions he devotes his earnings to making America a better place for all to live. However, he is very strict on how these contributions should be made. He believes all disruption should be made when the millionaire is alive. That after the millionaires death his contribution does nothing to benefit the society. “The miser millionaire who hoards his wealth does less injury to society than the careless millionaire who squanders his unwisely, even if he does so under cover of the mantle of sacred charity,” (p. 32) In some degree I agree with him. What does it say when contribution is made after someone death? Personally, it says that the cause wasn't important enough and now that the millionaires dead, they try to make it seem like they care and still keep their name on the radar by donating to society. Carnegie saw wealth as something that a person had to work for, and as a constant battle to maintain. Carnegie came from a poor family and worked hard to achieve his wealth.I began to learn what poverty meant," Andrew would later write. "It was burnt into my heart then that my father had to beg for work. And then and there came the resolve that I would cure that when I got to be a man." Also he said that he felt that he was given an opportunity when he was young and felt it was his duty to give others the means to be successful as well. This is important to Carnegie as someone who does come from struggling background; he doesn’t want to see the inequalities that are created in America due to a number of many factors. He wants to see society as a whole
His book, The Gospel of Wealth, preaches that “the millionaire who properly recognizes his own position is merely a "trustee"; he holds his surplus wealth for the benefit of his fellows” ("Andrew Carnegie," Dictionary). Carnegie himself abided by these words, contributing to society in the ways that he believed would most benefit American citizens. At its peak, Carnegie’s net worth was $475 million, which is equivalent to about $310 billion in today’s dollars. However, around the time of his death, Carnegie had only $30 million left to his name, after he put his money towards building trusts, charities, schools, and primarily libraries (Zorn). This philanthropy diverged from the actions of any millionaires of the time. Though some, such as John D. Rockefeller, also took part in philanthropic work, none held such intense concern or addressed societal problems as directly as Carnegie. Instead of simply donating large sums of money to schools or foundations, established his famous trusts and foundations, such as the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, that to this day benefit students by earning them scholarships and increasing the quality of their education. He also specifically fought to improve African American education, funding
He started with nothing and was able to be very successful. By working hard, he was hired by a railroad company. He was smart and open up a factory to change iron to steel and sell it to every on the market. Carnegie want to be able to own everything to be able to charge less which makes him able to control most of the market. This makes him extremely wealthy and shows people that if they work hard, they can become wealthy. Andrew Carnegie then began to think about his wealth and what he should do with it. He comes to the decision that he should give back to people and use his money for good. Carnegie then writes a book called The Gospel of Wealth. The Gospel of Wealth stated that it is the wealthy’s job to give to the poor to help them survive. It was everyone’s responsibility to help the people that were in need. Individual wealth should be passed to the society or the state rather than their kids and the wealthy should administer it. The rich were the fittest people so it should be their duty to take care of the poor or less fit people.
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.
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.
Carnegie and Rockefeller were both entrepreneurs, captains of industry, and philanthropists, but what sets them apart is that John D. Rockefeller was also known as a robber baron. Born in Scotland in 1835, Carnegie moved to Pennsylvania and worked in a textile factory, as a
Andrew Carnegie was born November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland. He was born to a family of weavers, a prominent occupation in his hometown. In 1847, the increased linen production from steam powered looms caused Carnegie’s father to lose his job. Carnegie’s mother went to work trying to provide for the family. This is when Carnegie says “I began to learn what poverty meant, it was burnt into my heart then that my father had to beg for work. And then and there came the resolve that I would cure that when I got to be a man.” (Carnegie, 1920)
Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-American steel tycoon and one of the wealthiest men of the nineteenth century, believes that social inequality results as an inexorable byproduct of progress. In his 1889 article entitled “Wealth,” Carnegie claims that it is “essential” for the advancement of the human race that social divisions between the rich and poor exist, which separate those “highest and best in literature and the arts” who embody the “refinements of civilization” from those who do not (105). According to Carnegie, this “great irregularity” is favored over the “universal squalor” that would ensue if class distinctions ceased to exist (105). Carnegie states that it is a “waste of time to criticize the inevitable,” believing that poverty is an inherent characteristic of society rather than the result of elitist oppression (105). Carnegie may conclude that the rich do not necessarily owe the poor anything, but he also believes that wealthy philanthropists such as he should donate their vast accumulations to charity while they are still alive. In Carnegie’s mind, contributions to supporting educational institutions and constructing landmarks serves to
Industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick could not have come from more different backgrounds. Carnegie was born in the Scottish town of Dunfermline to a very poor family in 1835. When he was 12 years old, his father, a weaver, decided to move the family to the United States in search of better prospects, arriving at what was then the municipality of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh’s North Side. By that time, Pittsburgh was already known as a major center for the production of steel and other metals. In 1853, at the age of 18, Carnegie was hired as a telegraph operator for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and became a protégé of Thomas A. Scott, who would soon rise
Andrew Carnegie did not seem to care for others because while his workers were losing money, Carnegie was donating money to other countries, and even different organizations. Most of Andrew Carnegie's actions showed greed and pride. Carnegie might have been a hero by giving away most of his money. He still died rich, as he said before “He who dies, rich dies disgraced” Don't be fooled by what others tell you, t ould always be sugarcoated. Not everything we see or hear is true. Carnegie treated most people wrongfully. While he was playing all fun and games, donating to others. Carnegie might have been a hero in the eyes of others, but not everyone sees him the same wa. Don't be
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.