Andrew Carnegie: Billionaire Literateur

This is a review of David Nasaw's biography of Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist. At 880 pages, the book is extensive and detailed. I will summarize my report along what I perceived to be the main themes of the book.

1. Life and Family: The book moves chronologically, with Carnegie's early years in Dumfermline (Scotland), in a weaver's family; followed by his family immigrating to Pittsburgh, America (led by his mother) to escape poverty; his careers first in telegraphy and then in the railroad industry; his certified rise to riches by the approximate age of 30; his late marriage; fatherhood at 60; and his death at 83 years of age leaving behind his wife and daughter.

   
   

   In the book, Carnegie comes across as upbeat and energetic, charming and loquacious. These qualities are shown to be crucial to his rise to wealth and his success as an industrialist; and hindrances to his efforts at influencing politics and commandeering social situations: our best qualities can be our worst enemies. Of course, there is no doubt that he certainly had an immense influence on America and even Europe, if not on the rest of the world. I thought the book does a very good job of describing Carnegie's personal life.

   
   

2. Relationship to wealth and labor: It emerges from the book that Carnegie was proud of his working class roots. He claimed that being born poor was the best start to becoming rich. He did not think hard work was necessary for acquiring riches, as he had not spent many hours per day working after he had turned 30, though he had kept long hours as a younger man.

   
   

   Buying and trading in stocks was not Carnegie's thing; he was a manufacturer. He needed to get a product out. He was a philanthropist from age 30: he believed a man who died rich was a failure. Upon his death he left $26 million to be distributed among various entities. He opposed imperialism and war, as being inimical to big business; the book suggests he died from the shock of World War I starting.

   
   

   The book shines in its detailed depiction and analysis of Carnegie's business thinking and maneuvers, his ideas about society and its advancement, and especially his thought and actions about industrial labor, with the crescendo occurring at the infamous and violent confrontation with labor unions at his steel plant in Homestead, PA in 1892.

   
   

3. Relationship to knowledge and education: One of the running themes in the book that caught my attention was Carnegie's concern about his own education. Someone (can't remember who, and I am paraphrasing) said Carnegie collected intellectuals like other millionaires collect art.

   
   

   Especially close were his relations to philosopher Herbert Spencer; poet and critic Matthew Arnold; novelist Mark Twain; and politicians Teddy Roosevelt and William Gladstone. With his wealth Carnegie funded libraries, observatories, music halls and natural history museums (to my knowledge he is the only millionaire with a dinosaur named after him - the Diplodocus Carnegii).

   
   

   He toured Europe whenever he could, catching up on its history and geography. He was a great reader, constantly quoting full acts from Shakespeare and lines from Burns, and always ready with interesting and funny stories. He was an ambitious writer as well. His books include The Gospel of Wealth, Success and How to Attain it, The ABC of Money, as well as his autobiography. Carnegie was a staunch abolitionist and promoted the educator Booker T. Washington.

Summary

Given the current political situation in the US and the involvement of millionaires in it, some people might find the book interesting from that perspective. There is also an entire chapter on tariffs. I would have liked to see more about Carnegie's interactions (maybe there weren't many) with the other millionaires who were his contemporaries: Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Vanderbilt.

All in all an amazingly substantial and well-written book.