https://padlet.com/choljes/b9n3uq6t9kj6 Robber Baron or Captain of Industry? en-us 2017-12-20 16:26:06 UTC 2026-02-13 23:09:58 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Growing.png choljes https://padlet.com/choljes/b9n3uq6t9kj6/wish/217536197 Andrew Carnegie, (born November 25, 1835, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland—died August 11, 1919, Lenox, Massachusetts, U.S.) was a Scottish-born American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He was also one of the most important philanthropists of his era. He began work at age 12 as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory. He quickly became enthusiastically Americanized, educating himself by reading and writing and attending night school. At age 14 Carnegie became a messenger in a telegraph office, where he eventually caught the notice of Thomas Scott, a superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, who made Carnegie his private secretary and personal telegrapher in 1853. Carnegie’s subsequent rise was rapid, and in 1859 he succeeded Scott as superintendent of the railroad’s Pittsburgh division.

]]> 2017-12-20 16:34:34 UTC https://padlet.com/choljes/b9n3uq6t9kj6/wish/217536197 choljes https://padlet.com/choljes/b9n3uq6t9kj6/wish/217538461 In the early 1870s, Carnegie co-founded his first steel company, near Pittsburgh. Over the next few decades, he created a steel empire, maximizing profits and minimizing inefficiencies through ownership of factories, raw materials and transportation infrastructure involved in steel-making. In 1892, his primary holdings were consolidated to form Carnegie Steel Company. He became a dominant force in the steel industry and practically "built" the steel industry in the U.S.]]> 2017-12-20 16:41:56 UTC https://padlet.com/choljes/b9n3uq6t9kj6/wish/217538461 choljes https://padlet.com/choljes/b9n3uq6t9kj6/wish/217539265 Carnegie followed a rise to wealth. He started at the bottom and worked himself to the top. He is a true story of the American dream. In 1901, banker JP Morgan purchased Carnegie Steel for some $480 million, making Andrew Carnegie one of the world’s richest men. That same year, Morgan merged Carnegie Steel with a group of other steel businesses to form U.S. Steel, the world’s first billion-dollar corporation.]]> 2017-12-20 16:44:24 UTC https://padlet.com/choljes/b9n3uq6t9kj6/wish/217539265 choljes https://padlet.com/choljes/b9n3uq6t9kj6/wish/217539749 In 1889, he had penned an essay, “The Gospel of Wealth,” in which he stated that the rich have “a moral obligation to distribute [their money] in ways that promote the welfare and happiness of the common man.” Carnegie also said that “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” Carnegie eventually gave away some $350 million (the equivalent of billions in today’s dollars), which represented the bulk of his wealth. Among his philanthropic activities, he funded the establishment of more than 2,500 public libraries around the globe, donated more than 7,600 organs to churches worldwide and endowed organizations (many still in existence today) dedicated to research in science, education, world peace and other causes. Among his gifts was the $1.1 million required for the land and construction costs of Carnegie Hall, the legendary New York City concert venue that opened in 1891.]]> 2017-12-20 16:45:59 UTC https://padlet.com/choljes/b9n3uq6t9kj6/wish/217539749