Andrew Carnegie's Contributions In American History

Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland, but immigrated to the United States in 1848 with his parents. Carnegie became wealthy through his venture in steel with his company Carnegie Steel Corporation. He sold the company in 1901 for $480 million to JP Morgan and decided to focus on his philanthropic work. Carnegie developed an ideology called the “Gospel of Wealth”, in which he stated that “those who accumulated money had an obligation to use it to promote the advancement of society”. Carnegie became famous for practicing what he preached, as he would fund public libraries and gave money to charities.

In his view, hoarding wealth and failing to use it for the greater good was shameful. Carnegie, following his philosophy, donated millions of dollars to fund libraries, cultural institutions and education all around the world. By building and funding such institutions, Carnegie left behind a semblance of his positive contributions as a Captain of industry by setting an example for others in his position. Take detailed notes from the reading about why Carnegie was a Robber Baron (bullets are fine).

The beginning of the Gilded Age brought upon many wealthy people; one specific person was Andrew Carnegie who was particularly important at that time. Carnegie wrote, The Triumph of America, in which he describes how America has been successful in growing in many ways. In the writing Carnegie states that the U.S. has surpassed many other nations because of the freedom that it offers to its people. He says that the American citizens have the freedom to vote and regulate law; unlike other monarchy nations that restrict their people from many liberties. The economic growth, population, and labor has been successful in the United States because it allows the ability to rise to wealth and equal opportunities in the nation within its people.

Andrew Carnegie was a steel businessman and the richest man in the United State in half of 19 century. He was born in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1835. He lived in a poor place. So he decided to move to U.S in the late 1800s to have a better life. First, he worked in the railroad industry in seven years.

As the document B provide us with a review of North America Review, June 1889 titled “Wealth” by Andrew Carnegie. In this document we can analyze the ways of how wealth is disposed the first is keep it for your descendants, being this a wrong way to educate your children giving wealth without having worked to achieved, the second way is the leaving it for public uses after your death, but he criticized this by “Why should a man wait until his dead before he becomes of much good in the world?”, and the last one is the one he praise of set an example of “modest, living and to produce the most beneficial result for the community” By this he explain and implement a new model of use of wealth in the world for the common good making donations and improving

And highlighting the period of wealth of the American upper class along with the rise of American philanthropy, was Andrew Carnegie who referred to his article as the “Gospel of Wealth”. This is why “The Gospel of Wealth” is an important theme of the class. Many new corporations and businesses gave rise to ultra-rich individuals during this time. Carnegie proposed that the best way

Carnegie was not a hero, because a hero does a deed selflessly, but he thought a lot about himself. 184,400,000 dollars was spent on big-name corporations and associations that would honor him by naming a meaningful belonging after him (Doc C). Carnegie was a man who wanted to feed his ego but should have donated money to help the community, not make himself known.     Andrew Carnegie was not a true hero. Many may say, going from rags to riches makes Carnegie a hero.

He believed that if the wealthy don't give back some of their profits to the community, they are living a dishonorable life, and although I didn't necessarily agree with this radical viewpoint at first, I now am a firm believer in Carnegie's argument about wealth.

Andrew Carnegie makes it clear that people in society with wealth should help those who deserve the financial help. If those in need of help put in their effort, then why shouldn’t they be helped by those who don’t need it? In the Life of the Average Coal Miner, the harsh conditions that children faced is revealed. Children would work for hours in a crucial and dangerous environment and be rewarded with very little money that did not equal to the amount of work they put in. It is unfair to those who worked in the conditions in the Life of the Average Coal Miner.

The captains of industry believed that the poor people were inferior to the rich people. The rich were superior because they had “wisdom, experience, and the ability to administer”. The duty of a rich person was to help out a poor person which was what was said in the Gospel of Wealth. The Gospel of Wealth is about how the rich person's responsibility is philanthropy. Carnegie believes in charity work so he would donate to libraries, and universities and schools and etc.

Likewise, many wealthy people, including big business leaders, came to realize that it was their role in society was to give back. Due to all the negative responses, people such as Andrew Carnegie were huge philanthropists . They stated that because they were wealthy and were better inclined than most, they should be willing to help those at the bottom. Andrew Carnegie’s, Gospel of Wealth, explicitly stated how the wealthy have a moral obligation to give back (Outside Evidence). Other major responses to changes and the impact of big business were responses from the government.

At the end of the 19th Century, as the United States was experiencing rapid industrialization, a reconfiguration of the social order yielded opposing visions of social progress. Andrew Carnegie, wealthy businessman, and Jane Addams, founder of Chicago’s Hull House, put forward different methods to achieve such progress, where Addams focuses on creating social capital in a seemingly horizontal manner while Carnegie advocates for a top-down approach. While both of them seem to reap a sense of purpose from their attempts to improve the nation, their approaches vary depending on their vision of the composition of the population they want to uplift. First, Carnegie and Addams’ desire to improve society is partly self-serving. For Carnegie, improving society is the role of the wealthy man who, “animated by Christ’s spirit” (“Wealth”), can administer wealth for the community better than it could have for itself (“Wealth”).

Rockefeller: The Captain of Industry that has helped our country thrive “The best philanthropy” he wrote, is constantly in search of finalities- a search for a cause an attempt to cure evils at their source” - John D. Rockefeller John D. Rockefeller was the richest man of his time but, used his wealth to improve our country. Rockefeller entered the fledgling Oil industry in 1863, by investing in a factory in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1870 Rockefeller established the Standard Oil Company. With the establishment of the oil company Rockefeller controlled 90% of the oil business in America by 1880.

Andrew Carnegie was one of the most famous and wealthiest American industrialist during the Industrial Age. He was a robber baron who made a fortune in the steel industry and applied vertical integration to his business. Carnegie contradicted his views as a robber baron because he supported, but destroyed many unions. This made many of his views unethical.

Underpinnings and Effectiveness of Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” In Andrew Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth”, Carnegie proposed a system of which he thought was best to dispose of “surplus wealth” through progress of the nation. Carnegie wanted to create opportunities for people “lift themselves up” rather than directly give money to these people. This was because he considered that giving money to these people would be “improper spending”.