Carnegie

Rating:
Summary: The rules are, there are no rules....
Review: A very detailed look into the life of one of the foremost figures of the industrial revolution. Krass really did his homework and presents an interesting character study. Carnegie basically built his fortune(as did others at the time) using then legal, while ethically questionable, inside information. Incredibly merciless to his workers, management and competitors, he was able to somewhat redeem himself in his later years by philanthropically giving his fortune away. This book is a very detailed look into a very different age.

Rating:
Summary: The Definitive Carnegie
Review: For anyone who didn't see the Barron's review last November, the reviewer declared this Carnegie biography "the definitive Carnegie." It brings Andrew Carnegie alive and tells it like it is. Also, in March 2003, Library Journal named Carnegie one of the best business biographies for 2002. It's a great read that pulls you into Andrew Carnegie's world. The research the author conducted is astounding. Better than Chernow's Titan.

Rating:
Summary: A Biography that reads like a novel!
Review: I enjoy reading a good biography every once in a while, which prompted me to buy this book. What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be! Peter Krass does a super job of writing the "play by play" as we follow the life of Andrew Carnegie--a man who goes from being the biggest shark in the wealth creation sea to becoming a man proficient at giving all that money away! This book reads like a well written novel--its like sitting back and watching a well played game of Monopoly! It is on a par with the Lindbergh story and many other recent best selling biographies that I've had a chance to read.

Rating:
Summary: Spend Some Time with This Great Biography
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. It has some very interesting insights and information about a very complex man. Clearly the author did a thorough job researching the subject and thus developed a deep understanding that he so eloquently shares with his readers.

Rating:
Summary: Keep an open mind, but read Peter Krass' "Carnegie".
Review: I just finished Peter Krass' excellent biography, "Carnegie". Krass is a gifted story-teller, so his narrative style made this a coherent and engaging read despite the necessary 600+ pages. He painted the portrait of Andrew Carnegie as the complex character he was, the conflicting motivations, the loyalty to family, childhood friends, his native Scotland and his new home, the United States. But, Krass shows us the other side, the relentless pursuit of ever increasing wealth, the vindictive investor mercilessly crushing competitors, business partners and employees. There are so many layers to the man, which Krass methodically revelaed.

Carnegie (the man) was a pivotal character in many of the developments of the Gilded Age apart from iron and steel and Krass succeeds in detailing his role one story at a time, in roughly chronological order. Carnegie associated with so many figures of the day, the uninitiated reader is well advised to keep crib-notes on the other players since their roles recur in other acts of Carnegie's life.

That is not to say the book is perfect. It suffers at times from inconsistent editing - which to be fair is difficult to maintain across a tome of this length. There are occasional wanderings where your crib-notes may help the reader keep the story line going even where the editors let Krass down.

Krass' treats the central character (Carnegie)with appropriate diligence and deference, and devotes himself to showing how conflicted and multi-dimensional Andrew Carnegie was. Others are not given the same consideration, often shown as flat and lifeless (sterotypical robber-barons) compared to Carnegie. Pierpont Morgan is given such treatment. The one to suffer most is Henry Clay Frick who is portrayed as a cold-hearted business machine (Krass even calls him such). In fact, Krass seems to let Carnegie off the hook for the Homestead riots while villifying Frick - a popular view that does not reflect the complexity of Frick and certainly not the extreme intricacy of the relationship between these two Titans of the steel industry.

The best part of the narrative is not how Carnegie made his money but how he went about giving it away. This was philanthropy to be sure, but in Carnegie's case it was an act of moral redemption. Krass chronicals the lifelong growth of the man well past the simple accumulation of great riches to the point where Carnegie himself was left in awe of the money and the body of philanthropic work it accomplished.

Don't be put off by Krass' introductory words in which he explains his motive in writing by outlining his family's role as laborers and activists in Carnegie's mills. It is simply his confession, but does not overshadow the treatment of this great public figure. In fact, Krass ends up being understanding of Carnegie, his motivations, and his legacy.

On the whole this is an excellent read, informative for the average reader and history buff. A healthy skepticism is in order, but Peter Krass' biography succeeds in telling the story of a famous figure in clear, understandable - and very human terms.

Rating:
Summary: Keep an open mind, but read Peter Krass' "Carnegie".
Review: I just finished Peter Krass' excellent biography, "Carnegie". Krass is a gifted story-teller, so his narrative style made this a coherent and engaging read despite the necessary 600+ pages. He painted the portrait of Andrew Carnegie as the complex character he was, the conflicting motivations, the loyalty to family, childhood friends, his native Scotland and his new home, the United States. But, Krass shows us the other side, the relentless pursuit of ever increasing wealth, the vindictive investor mercilessly crushing competitors, business partners and employees. There are so many layers to the man, which Krass methodically revelaed.

Carnegie (the man) was a pivotal character in many of the developments of the Gilded Age apart from iron and steel and Krass succeeds in detailing his role one story at a time, in roughly chronological order. Carnegie associated with so many figures of the day, the uninitiated reader is well advised to keep crib-notes on the other players since their roles recur in other acts of Carnegie's life.

That is not to say the book is perfect. It suffers at times from inconsistent editing - which to be fair is difficult to maintain across a tome of this length. There are occasional wanderings where your crib-notes may help the reader keep the story line going even where the editors let Krass down.

Krass' treats the central character (Carnegie)with appropriate diligence and deference, and devotes himself to showing how conflicted and multi-dimensional Andrew Carnegie was. Others are not given the same consideration, often shown as flat and lifeless (sterotypical robber-barons) compared to Carnegie. Pierpont Morgan is given such treatment. The one to suffer most is Henry Clay Frick who is portrayed as a cold-hearted business machine (Krass even calls him such). In fact, Krass seems to let Carnegie off the hook for the Homestead riots while villifying Frick - a popular view that does not reflect the complexity of Frick and certainly not the extreme intricacy of the relationship between these two Titans of the steel industry.

The best part of the narrative is not how Carnegie made his money but how he went about giving it away. This was philanthropy to be sure, but in Carnegie's case it was an act of moral redemption. Krass chronicals the lifelong growth of the man well past the simple accumulation of great riches to the point where Carnegie himself was left in awe of the money and the body of philanthropic work it accomplished.

Don't be put off by Krass' introductory words in which he explains his motive in writing by outlining his family's role as laborers and activists in Carnegie's mills. It is simply his confession, but does not overshadow the treatment of this great public figure. In fact, Krass ends up being understanding of Carnegie, his motivations, and his legacy.

On the whole this is an excellent read, informative for the average reader and history buff. A healthy skepticism is in order, but Peter Krass' biography succeeds in telling the story of a famous figure in clear, understandable - and very human terms.

Rating:
Summary: A must read!
Review: I received this book as a gift from my wife and found it to be totally engaging. Since I grew up in Pittsburgh, this book brought to life a lot of the events that made the city. Peter Krass does an excellent job capturing the essence of this unique business leader and I found it hard to put this book down each night.

I put this one on the "must read list" for this year.

Boot Seem

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: I'd say this book is pretty good though njot as good as Titan, the book on Rockefeller. This one is interesting and well-written, though not as engaging as Titan.

Still, deserves a read.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: I'd say this book is pretty good though njot as good as Titan, the book on Rockefeller. This one is interesting and well-written, though not as engaging as Titan.

Still, deserves a read.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: In more than 600 pages, author Peter Krass delivers an almost overwhelming volume of facts about Andrew Carnegie, who certainly merits detailed study. Much in his life and work remains relevant today. The book is marred by frequent editorial asides and judgments. However, a man emerges out of the mountain of facts who was unusually sensitive to the impact of new technologies and extraordinarily able to position himself to take advantage of them. Carnegie was a man of contrasts, ruthless, hypocritical, forceful and diffident, idealistic and amoral, driven to amass a fortune and philanthropic. We appreciate the effort behind this full scale biography of Carnegie, the first one offered for almost 30 years, and recommends getting to know this American icon.