Ilya Gurevich 2/1/11 2nd Period APUSH Essay Hajduk

Andrew Carnegie: Captain of Industry and Philanthropic Giant

Andrew Carnegie: the name itself brings a certain sense of American fondness. We call ourselves, frequently, to look back at the past, and realize how much we, as a society have been influenced by the history of our nations greatest industry figures, most specifically a man of great moral, industrial, and hardworking spirit that forever epitomizes the American Can-do attitude, Andrew Carnegie. As a representative of the new and blooming industrial age, Carnegie employed the use of the steel industry, forever changing America with his affluence and ingenuity. However, he was quite different than other great leaders of production in the beginning of the twentieth century, in that he took pride in his work, but never had a distinct feeling of greed. His philanthropic consciousness was one that (while attempted to be copied by others i.e. Rockefeller) had a distinct moral originality to it, and was generally quite atypical of the average industrial tycoon during the time period. As a poor pauper boy who had just come from Ireland, Carnegie had lived in a life of poverty, whose father constantly struggled to find work, food, and a decent living. Moving to

America, Carnegies family sought to find change in pace, but however, were again struck by the sense of poverty. Being the hard-working man that he was, Carnegie gradually established a job as a telegrapher in a factor, and quickly rose through the ranks and proved his worth. Thanks to a certain benefactor who thoroughly enjoyed Carnegies presence, Carnegie enabled himself to a full library, and developed his business education in literature. Carnegie eventually found luck in meeting Thomas Scott, owner of the Pennsylvania railroad, and Carnegie set out to work for him and immediately realized the great potential of investments, especially in new and booming industries like railroads. Carnegie had a certain talent for being able to find a change that was profitable to him in the future. If something was a potentially proved beneficial, Carnegie would invest heavily in it. In which case, after working in the railroad business, and after the civil war, Carnegie realized the extreme important of the steel industry, and sought to make use of it in the now booming American economy. This however, is not entirely [not] normal for his time. There would plenty of considerably rich oligarchs of American industry that controlled large sectors of American economy and thus proved themselves worthy of a hard-working business. But what set Carnegie apart from others was his intense philanthropic working of his later life. After having sold his company to J.P. Morgan, receiving 500 million dollars, and thus being declared the richest man in the world, Carnegie devoted the rest of his career for philanthropic causes. He constantly used the phrase a man who dies rich, dies in disgrace and near the end of his life devoted nearly 350 million dollars (not to charity, he despised charity) but to fund groups that could help others help themselves. He donated to over 2500 libraries and plenty of other education institutions and cultural attraction (much like his own Carnegie Hall).

Works Cited "The New Tycoons: Andrew Carnegie [ushistory.org]." ushistory.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2011. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/36c.asp>. "American Experience . The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie . People & Events | Andrew Carnegie | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan.

2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents/pande01.html>. "Andrew Carnegie." United States History. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Jan. 2011. <http://www.u-shistory.com/pages/h981.html>.