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: 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: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Great look at the time period
Review: One of the best things about biographies is that you can get a good grasp of what was happening around the main person. This book is no different. If you're interested in the Industrial Revolution or if you are interested in the Robber Barons then this book would be well suited for you. I first read Howard Zinns, "People's History of the US". After that I didn't like people such as Carnegie. But I gave the book its chance and I was more than surprised by the dichotomy of Carnegie's character.

Rating:
Summary: The Definitive Carnegie
Review: One thing I always ask myself when I pick up is why is the author writing this book? What makes the subject interesting to him? Where is the writer coming from?

Answers here are in the subject. Andrew Carnegie was once the richest man in the world. At the height of his wealth he had $100 billion dollars in today's dollars. Bill Gates had $50 billion at the height of the stock market bubble.

By the time he died Carnegie gave almost all of his money away. Carnegie was the first of the super-rich to become famous for his giving and tried to justify himself and build a philosophy around it.

That philosophy centered around Herbet Spencer's theories of social darwinism that justified his accumulation of money through a fight to the death against competitors and cost cutting that brought slave wages to many of his workers. Krass notes that the money Carnegie committed to libraries in the 1880's was almost the same that he spent on wages.

Carnegie wrote an important essay called the "gospel of wealth" in which he tried to explain his position in society - calling people like himself people who rose to the top due to superiority and whose wealth they used as a "trustee" for the better of society.

That essay is Carnegie's central importance in history - he provided the philisophical underpinning for the "robber baron."

Krass's book is the first major biography of Carnegie written in 30 years. It provides an excellent window into the era that Carnegie lived in and the more open and individualistic capitalism of the times. After Carnegie big business would be dominated by "trusts" and the "finance capitalism" of interlocking directorates and bankers. At one time the bank of Morgan had a person sitting on the board of directors of the 30 largest companies in America.

But Carnegie orgininated the modern foundation and giving programs of the super-rich which continues until this day.

Krass starts his book off with a discussion of the wide disparity between Carngies money and his treatment of his workers. As the book goes on though his portrayal of Carnegie mellows. In fact if you just read the first few pages and stopped you wouldn't get a good idea of what this book is really like. However, those first few pages give you an idea of what drew Krass to Carnegie - the role of the super-rich in society and the contradictions that they reveal. Although Carnegie thought he was superior to most people he believed he had a responsibility too.

Rating:
Summary: Carnegie: the capitalist, philanthropist, peace-seeker
Review: Peter Krass's biography, "Carnegie", is a terrific look at a man whose name most of us have known all of our lives, but whose life has remained something of a mystery. The name "Carnegie" evokes thoughts of money and power and in this mature biography, Krass has managed to give us a thorough look at Andrew Carnegie, from his hardscrabble boyhood days in Scotland, to his eventual rise to the top of the business world and to the monetary charity that marked his final years.

Not only does the author spend time writing about Carnegie's achievements but he is careful to include the emotional state of his subject. Carnegie could be petty and vicious one minute then caring and loving the next. How that affected his business as well as his personal life is what makes this book so engrossing.

While most of us know that Andrew Carnegie made his millions in the steel business, his knowledge of other businesses and how they intertwined with his own (especially the railroads) is fascinating. Through his gift-giving for the erection of hundreds of libraries around the world he made sure that Andrew Carnegie's name would be remembered for generations. No small ego here! It would seem that the author has given Carnegie a balanced look with the good side outweighing the bad in the final analysis.

What I gleaned from Peter Krass is a part of Andrew Carnegie about which I hadn't known...his efforts in the "peace movement" of his day. How firmly committed to the abolishment of war was Carnegie and his means to that end are cleary laid out in this biography. Carnegie's close working relationships and correspondence with every president from Cleveland to Wilson is offered by Krass, giving an added bonus to those of us who enjoy biographies of U.S. presidents, and it marks some of the lighter moments of the book as Krass relates how Carnegie liked to meddle in the affairs of state, often without invitation.

Through all of Andrew Carnegie's duplicity and vindictiveness toward his own workers and colleagues as he rose to the top, he more than made up for it in his philanthropic works later in life. Carnegie was that "rare breed" and Peter Krass has captured all of it.

Rating:
Summary: A Giant Scot
Review: This biography of Carnegie is not only a great read about a great Scot, it tells of a time of great accomplishment amid the upheaval of the industrial revolution in Pennsylvania in the middle of the 18th century. Carnegie's father was put out of work by the automation of the knitting machines and defeated utterly, while the young immigrant who started in the most menial of jobs, progressed rapidly by his genius for hard work and risk-taking into upper management of the Pennsylvania railroad.

Parlaying what is today called insider trading into a modest fortune, he grew it into a vast fortune in the steel industry. Often reviled as a "robber baron," he then gave it all away in a philanthropic orgy of building public libraries for worthy communities.

Krass's task is to humanize the giant, and he doesn't settle for a simple-minded caricature of the ruthless, money grubbing capitalist. He very successfully portrays the man as a whole, with all the attendant contradictions of any man, and follows the evidence where it leads, in the spirit of an honest biographer. While he doesn't gloss over the cruel and difficult struggles to get the most out of his workers for the least pay, Krass shows the other side of a loyal friend and faithful family man, with high ideals and aspirations for the betterment of mankind.

Krass has given us a well researched book, an exemplar of the best in biography, and is a captivating tale of a time when giants populated the world.

Rating:
Summary: Should Read This Book
Review: This review is written in simple english in honor of Mr. Carnegie. Those who read the book will understand.

Peter Krass did a good job of develloping Carnegies carracter, from erly boyhood, thru his bizness career, into his filanthropic and peese werk after his retirement. He did an especialy good job shoing Carnegies internal conflicts as far as how he felt over the way he treeted his werkers and how he wishd to be seen by sosiety at larj. At the beginning of the book Krass explaned that he had a bias agenst Carnegie becauz Krass's grate-grandfather was the victim of Carnegies abuziv treetment of his werkers. This bias seemd to cum across thruout the book and I found myself wundering if it was a fair reprezentation of the events or Krass's prejudis agenst Carnegie.

I hav two crittisizms of the book.

Ferst, Krass was not abel to devellop enny of the uther carracters besides Carnegie. Carnegies wife Louise, his dauter Margaret, and his frend Morley wer not develloped into peeple the reeder new and understood. This is particculerly tru of Carnegies dauter Margaret.

Seccond, in spite of the fact that the book was 540 pajes, Krass did not cleerly explane numerus events. For exampel, in the summer of 897, after the berth of thair dauter Margaret, Carnegie shopd for a new mansion by himself becauz Louise did not want to leev yung Margaret. Carnegie found the new estate but could not perchas it until Louise gave it her aproval. In August of that summer, Carnegie and Louise went on a long yotting trip to tour the Hebrides, leeving Margaret with a nanny. Krass dus not explane wy Louise would giv such a trip priority over vewing thair new home.

In spite of such shortcummings, Krass dus do a good job of develloping the mane carracter, Andrew Carnegie. By the end of the book I was quite sad to reed of Carnegies deth and hav to say good-by to someone i felt i had gotten to no so wel thru Krass's portrayal.

All in all i suggest this as a book that should be red by ennyone who likes biografys of suxessful biznessmen like Carnegie.