Free Essays on Andrew Carnegie

One of the captains of industry of 19th century America, Andrew Carnegie helped build the formidable American steel industry, a process that turned a poor young man into one of the richest entrepreneurs of his age. Later in his life, Carnegie sold his steel business and systematically gave his collected fortune away to cultural, educational and scientific institutions for "the improvement of mankind." Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, the medieval capital of Scotland, in 1835. The town was a center of the linen industry, and Andrew's father was a weaver, a profession the young Carnegie was expected to follow. But the industrial revolution that would later make Carnegie the richest man in the world, destroyed the weavers' craft. When the steam- powered looms came to Dunfermline in 1847 hundreds of hand loom weavers became expendable. Andrew's mother went to work to support the family, opening a small grocery shop and mending shoes. "I began to learn what poverty meant," Andrew would later write. "It was burnt into my heart then that my father had to beg for work. And then and there came the resolve that I would cure that when I got to be a man." An ambition for riches would mark Carnegie's path in life. However, a belief in political egalitarianism was another ambition he inherited from his family. Andrew's father, his grandfather Tom Morrison and his uncle Tom Jr. were all Scottish radicals who fought to do away with inherited privilege and to bring about the rights of common workers. But Andrew's mother, fearing for the survival of her family, pushed the family to leave the poverty of Scotland for the possibilities in America. She borrowed 20 pounds she needed to pay the fare for the Atlantic passage and in 1848 the Carnegies joined two of Margaret's sisters in Pittsburgh, then a sooty city that was the iron-manufacturing center of the country. William Carnegie secured work in a cott... Free Essays on Andrew Carnegie Free Essays on Andrew Carnegie The Gilded Age and Andrew Carnegie The Gilded age was a time of industrialization, a time where certain entrepreneurs became filthy rich. For the first time Americans had sewing machines, phonographs, skyscrapers, and even electric lights, yet most people labored in the shadow of poverty .Andrew Carnegie was and is still considered one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all times. He is the equivalent of today’s Bill Gates. Although he was known for making ruthless business trades he built an empire so strong, it made him the richest person in the World. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline Scotland in 1835. His father was a handloom weaver and decided to move his family to the United States in 1848 to join his other relatives that had already settled in Pittsburg . Things weren’t always easy for young Andrew. Like all Entrepreneurs Carnegie started off working in a cotton mill as a bobbin boy then worked his way up to telegrapher. It wasn’t long before Carnegie moved up again, this time he worked as Thomas Scott’s first assistant to the Pennsylvania Railroad . Carnegie eventually became superintendent of the Pennsylvania railroad in 1859 . For the next six years he worked on improving the railroad systems. It wasn’t until 1865 when Carnegie resigned from the Pennsylvania railroad system in order to concentrate on some of his personal investments with the steel industry. At this point Carnegie realized America’s need for Steel and jumped at the opportunity. In 1865 he founded the Keystone Bridge, Co which made iron and steel . This made Carnegie a very wealthy man. I think the jump he made from the Railroads to the steel industry was the most influential part of his entire life. It is said that Carnegies success in the steel industry primarily came because surround himself with smart men, he invested in new equipment, and he owned most of his stock so he didn’t have to answer to anyone buy himself . By 1900 Carnegi... Free Essays on Andrew Carnegie One of the captains of industry of 19th century America, Andrew Carnegie helped build the formidable American steel industry, a process that turned a poor young man into one of the richest entrepreneurs of his age. Later in his life, Carnegie sold his steel business and systematically gave his collected fortune away to cultural, educational and scientific institutions for "the improvement of mankind." Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, the medieval capital of Scotland, in 1835. The town was a center of the linen industry, and Andrew's father was a weaver, a profession the young Carnegie was expected to follow. But the industrial revolution that would later make Carnegie the richest man in the world, destroyed the weavers' craft. When the steam- powered looms came to Dunfermline in 1847 hundreds of hand loom weavers became expendable. Andrew's mother went to work to support the family, opening a small grocery shop and mending shoes. "I began to learn what poverty meant," Andrew would later write. "It was burnt into my heart then that my father had to beg for work. And then and there came the resolve that I would cure that when I got to be a man." An ambition for riches would mark Carnegie's path in life. However, a belief in political egalitarianism was another ambition he inherited from his family. Andrew's father, his grandfather Tom Morrison and his uncle Tom Jr. were all Scottish radicals who fought to do away with inherited privilege and to bring about the rights of common workers. But Andrew's mother, fearing for the survival of her family, pushed the family to leave the poverty of Scotland for the possibilities in America. She borrowed 20 pounds she needed to pay the fare for the Atlantic passage and in 1848 the Carnegies joined two of Margaret's sisters in Pittsburgh, then a sooty city that was the iron-manufacturing center of the country. William Carnegie secured work in a cott...