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Andrew Carnegie's Influence On America

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In the year of 1852, the industrious skill and dedication of a young twelve-year-old boy named Andrew Carnegie captivated Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad. 1 Awed by his diligence, Scott immediately hired and made Carnegie his personal telegrapher.2 With a “rags to riches” background that inspired others to work hard for the American Dream, Carnegie knew exactly how the less fortunate felt when they were compared to the wealthy. Noticing how society achieved social, economic, and political equality before industrialization, Carnegie shared his intake on America’s momentous shift from an agrarian society to an industrial society in the late
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This book describes two of the transforming events in America’s economic life, the Homestead Strike and the evolution of Carnegie Steel Company into United States Steel Corporation. Les Standiford frames the events and clash of wills of Carnegie and Frick in the moral framework of Weber’s analysis of the Protestant ethic which some believe gave moral self-justification to those captains of industry. This book views the Homestead Strike through the prism of the personalities and values of two titans of that era, Carnegie and Frick. Did Carnegie, the older, wealthier and more visible, hold the higher moral ground? Standiford declares no winner.

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589 Words | 3 Pages

For the first time in the country’s short existence, the man who was most capable of leading America was not a politician. He was a self-made person who, through sheer force of will, was able to turn a poor upbringing on the docks of New Harbor into an empire. Vanderbilt grew up poor, but at age 16, he bought a small ferry boat with a loan of $100 and quickly developed a reputation as a “cutthroat” businessman. He was a tough guy and did whatever it took to get ahead of the game, and once he created the railroad empire, he became the richest man in the country. He even became so synonymous with shipping that his nickname became “the Commodore.”

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323 Words | 2 Pages

Andrew Carnegie amassed his fortune by utilizing vertical integration and employing cheap labor, at the expense of the common man. This tactic proved effective when competing with other companies. However, as a result, workers were manipulated and used as pawns in a game with a predetermined winner. Working as blue collar laborers, the employees had no chance to improve their socioeconomic status and their way of life, completely contradicting Carnegie’s own theory that wealth would be rewarded to those who worked hard and proved themselves capable and competent of handling it.

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505 Words | 3 Pages

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”).

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231 Words | 1 Pages

Andrew Carnegie, born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland on November 25, 1835, and passed away on August 11, 1919. He grew up with very little education but came from a family who believed very much in books and learning. His father was a handloom weaver, and his mother was the basic backbone of their family who was the most influential to Carnegie. At the age of thirteen, Carnegie came to the United States with his family, and Settled in Pennsylvania. He worked in a factory earning $1.20 per week.

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939 Words | 4 Pages

Thesis : After the Civil War, America was in a post-war boom. During the 1870-1890, big business moguls, such as Rockefeller and Carnegie, create huge corporations which not only affected the economy, but also affected the political realm of America. While many may assume that during the rise of these big business helped to change the economy and politics,  the real focus was on the responses formed by society, such as labor unions, increase public outcry, and political opposition groups that helped to change society. A: Economically, big business flourished during the late 1800s.

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355 Words | 2 Pages

The Gilded Age was an age of rapid economic growth. Railroads, factories, and mines were slowly popping up across the country, creating a variety of new opportunities for entrepreneurs and laborers alike. These new inventions and opportunities created “...an unprecedented accumulation of wealth” (GML, 601). But the transition of America from a small farming based nation to a powerful industrial one created a huge rift between social classes. Most people were either filthy rich or dirt poor, with workers being the latter.

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605 Words | 3 Pages

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”.

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427 Words | 2 Pages

Andrew Carnegie was a hero in some people 's eyes , not so much in others . That’s why everyone has their own opinion. In this essay you will read one reason someone might think he’s a hero , and two reasons why he is not a hero for the rest of the people. What that means is that this paper mostly leans on that Andrew Carnegie is not a hero and you will read why . Andrew Carnegie was a very wealthy man.

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338 Words | 2 Pages

Carnegie’s views on the treatment of his workers are one of the things that he did that are considered unethical. For instance, during America’s depression in the early 1800’s, Carnegie’s workers were repeatedly asked to work long hours for little play; many unions resisted, particularly in the Homestead Strike of 1892. In the Homestead Strike, workers were angry about pay cuts and Carnegie’s

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497 Words | 2 Pages

In today’s society the term “rags to riches” is heavily overused, someone can strike it rich in the stock market or the lottery and earn the term. However, a few key figures in history have actually lived a “rags to riches” life. Andrew Carnegie is one such man.

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707 Words | 3 Pages

The decade between 1890 and 1900 expressed a crucial time in the United States of America’s history. Many people experienced struggles throughout this time while others prospered. Mark Twain suggested that despite the significant achievements of the United States, Americans experienced poverty. This statement is an accurate description of the lively hood people experienced in their daily lives during the Gilded Age whether it was positive or negative. Many people during this time period focused on the positive outcomes that resulted from the Gilded Age such as new inventions, the gospel of wealth, additions of land to the country, urbanization, and middle-class improvements.

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727 Words | 3 Pages

In the Gilded Age from 1865 to 1900, farmers and industrial workers responded significantly to industrialization by forming alliances and movements. From 1865 to 1900, the farmers responded to industrialization significantly by forming alliances and movements. The farmers responded by creating the Farmer’s Alliance. The Farmer’s

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967 Words | 4 Pages

Andrew Carnegie, one of the founders of US Steel, has one of the most inspiring “rags to riches” stories in American History. His success story is one of the most prominent examples of the American Dream, an idea whose validity is commonly debated to this day. The American Dream is the idea that anyone in the United States, regardless of social class, can achieve all of their goals and accomplish anything. Although romanticized and over exaggerated due to certain misconceptions regarding opportunity in the United States in the present, there are several biographies and novels that tell the stories of those who have lived the American Dream. The literary eras of Modernism and Postmodernism in American Literature are saturated with a recurring

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372 Words | 2 Pages

During 1870-1890 the gilded era of growth, evolution, and corruption problems proclaimed, became the economic development “jump from farm to factory” (Foner). These promotions lead to transforming the city into a central element in America. “At the other end of the economic spectrum, the era witnessed an unprecedented accumulation of wealth. Class divisions became more and more visible. ”(Foner)

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