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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Interesting but very self-serving autobiographical sketch by Carnegie.
The Gospel of Wealth - Wikipedia
Especially notable is his lying account of his part in the Homestead lockout. As David Nasaw and Joseph Wall have shown, using the historical documents of Carnegie's communications with Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie and Frick were determined--and rightly so--to make the Homestead plant non-union as of July 1, They were also agreed on replacing workers who refused the new contracts with new hires and using Pinkerton agents to protect the replacement workers and the plant. Carnegie's attempt to blame Frick for these actions and the resultant violence was no less cowardly than his attempt to blame the Pennsylvania Railroad's Tom Scott for Carnegie's sale of Union Pacific stock in that led to his and Scott's removal from the Union Pacific board.
The autobiography does provide insight's into Carnegie's personality that aren't found in other places. Mass Market Paperback Verified Purchase. One person found this helpful. Andrew Carnegie easily could have taken the slot as richest man ever in history. He could have also created a legacy like many of the other millionaires of his time to solidify his family name for eternity, but instead he chose to not give into 'one of man's greatest evils' The worship of money , and use the influence he had to politically and socially elevate the world. There isn't a more inspiring figure to me than a man who where most people would only think for themselves, he thought of everyone but himself.
There are many pages in this book, where Mr. Carnegie's had to fill in the details, because the guy was to modest to talk about himself in a bragging way. He teaches many great lessons about how public opinion is moot when you know you have a good cause. He preaches reading as practically the greatest good on earth, and spoke highly of his parents. Some of his chapters have inspired me notably the one where he treats everyone, even people how to politically hurt him, by taking them out enjoying their company and then firmly telling them his stance.
I read the book because I wanted to become a big shot entrepenuer, but by the last pages, Andrew Carnegie gave me something a lot greater, knowledge and and the mindset to always treat people like they deserve more dignity than the world gives them. This is not because I'm co-dependant or weak, but because we live in a very self-centered and greedy world, and Andrew Carnegie led by example on how to change that paradigm. He led the finest example I've ever read so far, and I encourage this book to everyone who has interests in autobiographical pieces. I bought this book with the idea of getting some insight as to how Mr.
Carnegie made his investment decisions. There was some of that, but he mainly talks about his dealings with the rich and powerful of his time.
The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and His Essay The Gospel of Wealth
He rubbed elbows with the wealthy and politicians including presidents both in America and abroad. It gets a little tiring after awhile reading about his interactions with these people thus the lower rating. It is like reading his diary. However, it does give you a feel for the culture at that time. What I find with autobiographies is that the authors usually portray themselves in the best light. This book is no different. He likes to identify himself as a friend of the worker, which he tried to be. There was a strike at his plant in which workers were killed.
He blamed that on his manager because it happened while he was abroad. I've read in other places that there is skepticism about that. He also gives his thoughts on philanthropy in his The Gospel of Wealth chapter at the end of the book. He gave away millions to establish libraries. He believes in the estate tax because, as he says it, "By taxing estates heavily at death the State his capitalization marks its condemnation of the selfish millionaire's unworthy life" page He says that the rich should give their money away to charitable institutions during their lifetime because the rich would know how it should best be distributed, and that the money should not be given in small sums to individuals because they would not, in general, know how to spend it wisely I'm assuming because they would also be rich if they knew how to spend it.
There was very much the paternal feeling I got when I read J. Morgan's biography - the wealthy are stewards of capital because the common people can not be trusted with it. A little self serving on Andrews part. A libertarian before Rand. Still, interesting how much he valued learning. And there's no denying his philanthropy. One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. Wish I had of listened Book came brand new. Wish I had of listened to it for free on Librivox. Kind of dissapointing to spend that much money on it. Great collection for a successful library.
The book came quickly and is an excellent condition. See all 56 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published 3 months ago. Published 6 months ago. Published 7 months ago. Published 8 months ago. Published 11 months ago. Published 1 year ago.
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Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Set up a giveaway. What other items do customers buy after viewing this item? He devoted the last years of his life to divesting his fortune to mankind. The pensions he set up for less fortunate are too many to name.
It's an intriguing read, although the latter half of the book dragged a bit for me. Feb 28, Regina rated it really liked it. He took care of his mother until the end of her days and built first an iron and then a steel empire not rivaled by many. He dealt with his workers honestly and fairly. Especially in the case of the riots, he absolves himself of all responsibility for how the negotiations went and the bloodshed that followed. He congratulates himself quite a lot throughout on various financial catastrophes he avoided as well. But he published it when he was still alive so he has to present himself in the best possible light.
Carnegie grew up in a time when children were expected to work at a very young again and only schooled as a luxury.
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He really did bring himself up from the very bottom of society to the pinnacle. It was very, very interesting to read about the Civil War and his perspective of the personalities of Abraham Lincoln and General Grant. I did not know the part he himself played in the war so it was eye opening to hear this history through his eyes. The narration was just OK for me. The material was fairly dry so that may be an unfair assessment. I received this audiobook for free through Audiobook Boom! Sep 22, Ian Carswell rated it really liked it. The first chapter or so is slow going, but once he gets into the story of his career the narrative really takes off.
Very optimistic guy, fun to hear that come through in his perspective. He noted that his optimistic tendencies lead folks to say of him that he makes "all my ducks swans", which does make me want to read biography's of him written by third parties to hear another perspective. Was quite interesting to learn that he was strongly familiar with and influenced by the religious writings The first chapter or so is slow going, but once he gets into the story of his career the narrative really takes off.
Was quite interesting to learn that he was strongly familiar with and influenced by the religious writings of Swedenborg. Apr 15, Julie rated it it was amazing. Very easy and enjoyable read. What a man and what a time in our history. Jan 03, Floris Wolswijk rated it really liked it. Whilst reflecting on his life, Andrew Carnegie in his autobiography inspires his readers with an abundance of life-lessons.
He describes how his family moved to the United States. He plainly describes how he took on responsibility early on in life. He isn't boastful of the steel corporations he helps build. And in the end he shows gratitude and ends up giving away almost his whole fortune. In his autobiography Andrew Carnegie never gets too personal, but we can still learn a lot from his life.
Always learning, always working As a kid Carnegie already understood two big life lessons lessons that many people never seem to grasp. The first was that you should work hard to start earning. As a deliverer of messages he made it his job to learn everybodies name. When moving up the corporate ladder he learned on the job, wasn't afraid to ask for advice and grew to become one of the richest men in history. The second lesson is that he knew to learn when he was not working, reading books in the evening and keeping in good company.
In his own words "There was scarcely a minute in which I couldn't learn something or find out how much there was to learn and how little I knew. Always a sunny disposition to life, he describes how he has benefited from having poor parents. His parents fulfilled all the roles a kid looks up to nurse, cook, teacher, saint, exemplar, guide, friend. He shows great gratitude for their support and start contributing to the family at a very young age.
In later chapters they are rarely mentioned, but it's hard to imagine that they weren't taken good care of. Keep your focus and listen to people When Carnegie proved himself very resourceful and capable in his first few jobs he soon rose to high positions. First he moved up the ladder in the railroad business, and then switched to become a business owner in production most famously steel. For me he portraits that even in those early days a honest and kind person can always win from the cheating and deceiving kinds.
When he speaks of his workers he is apt to name names and attribute positive traits to them. Even when in conflict with others he knows that first listening is more important than being heard. One thing Carnegie is quoted for a lot is the following "Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket! He states that you should be fully committed and have single minded focus on your core business to make it a success. Looking at what he did you can see that this is true, he became big by focussing on steel. In his free time however he was very busy distributing his wealth, shortly engaged in politics and more generally used his power for the good.
Give it all away His autobiography almost never mentions how much Carnegie has given away. In his lifetime Carnegie gave away more than million dollars giving away the remaining 30 million in his will. He used this money to build over 2, libraries, fund universities and promote world peace. One thing that is genius in the way he distributed his money is that he made sure the institutions he erected would stand for centuries to come. Municipalities were asked to maintain the libraries and each fund had very qualified boards. In the essay The Gospel of Wealth Carnegie writes more about his giving philosophy.
He states that it's a disgrace for rich people to die rich. He argues that the capitalist system can work because smart rich people can best distribute that wealth back to the people. He uses the example of a library as something that can better a society, but if that money would be evenly distributed would be lost to trifling matters i. Carnegie states "In bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves. It reflects on a great career, has a human touch and is packed with timeless lessons. It may forget to go into depth about his personal feelings or fail to expose flaws in his character.
These miscomings are however forgiven when you consider the amazing legacy Carnegie has left behind. Please take your time to read this book when convenient. Oct 14, Matt McCormick rated it did not like it. I really like reading about business and biographies, but this is an example of how an autobiography should not be written.
People are quite bad at analysing themselves and their own life and that came off in the part of the book I read. Carnegie doesn't do a good job of identifying key points in his life and writing in an entertaining manner. In parts of the book he goes off on tangents that really don't have anything to do with his life leaving the reader confused and wondering what the point is. He seems to advance in his career without giving much thought as to why that happened. What made him different than others? One day he is working as a courier and the next day he is in charge of managing the railroad.
He does try to identify some points like loyalty and taking risks but, in my view, there is probably a lot he left out. It would have been better to write his autobiography with a biographer, similar to Malcolm X, who could have probed more into these situations and discovered the real reasons behind his rise to fortune.
Recently I read the autobiography of Henry Ford which I really enjoyed. It wasn't so much an autobiography as a collection of his business values and principles. While I didn't agree with them and found him hypocritical in places, it was valuable to see Ford's thinking process and where he was coming from. I would have preferred more like that for Carnegie's book. There were some lessons and thought process but they were spaced too few between the long, drawn out stories to make it worthwhile continuing to read the book.
Despite not liking this book, I would still be interested in reading a good biography about the man if anyone has suggestions. Feb 02, Nick Urciuoli rated it it was ok. Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth is really galling. He assumes that great men accumulate great wealth and that it is thereafter incumbent on them to give it away to benefit the public, or at least the segment of the public that can "help themselves. But his goal in doing so helping advance the race is incr Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth is really galling.
But his goal in doing so helping advance the race is incredibly esoteric and subjective.
In my view, that goal is essentially a red herring whether he believes it to be so or not I'm not sure distracting attention from the fact that his wealth would not have been so immense had collective bargaining or especially antitrust law been effective in his time. His arguments for protective tariffs are similarly weak and evasive.
Neither does he, an avowed "individualist" nominally in favor of stiff economic competition, justify his preference for thinking of the good of "the race" or general society rather than the good of individual people. I have other complaints with his views particularly strange is his story explaining how Ulysses S.
Grant quit drinking , but I don't have the time to address them here. Suffice it to say, I find Carnegie's thinking clever yet self-serving and at times contradictory. Jul 21, Sshakar rated it liked it. Carnegie was a steel tycoon. No one can argue about that. He did have an extraordinary life emerging from a poor family and fighting his way through.
My impression is that Carnegie portrays perfection in his autobiography. The mistakes he made does not exceed fingers of one hand. In reality, no one's perfect. I wished to see his struggles, major problems he had encountered and how he fought them and succeeded.
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The impression you get from reading this autobiography was that his life was a strike Carnegie was a steel tycoon. The impression you get from reading this autobiography was that his life was a strike of luck: He was intelligent and disciplined; He was destined to succeed without struggles. That's science fiction for me. Additionally, he spends a portion of the book rationalizing some actions he was criticized for, which made me doubt his intentions behind writing such an autobiography.
The book overall was a fair read and Carnegie was a good writer. Mar 10, Michele rated it it was ok.
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I was rather unimpressed with Mr. Carnegie's need to name drop for the last third of the book. It had a slow start, but the first portion of the book, through his rise to success as a steel magnate, was pretty good.
If he had refrained from adding the last third of the book, it would have been much better. Overall, he was a little hard to take. This was a class assignment, and we unanimously decided it was not one of the better selections, nor was Carnegie very likeable in spite of his protesta I was rather unimpressed with Mr. This was a class assignment, and we unanimously decided it was not one of the better selections, nor was Carnegie very likeable in spite of his protestations of popularity with his "men" and the elite.