Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
Impacts Of Industrialization
Economic effects of industrialisation
Andrew carnegie autobiography essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Impacts Of Industrialization
Economic effects of industrialisation
Andrew carnegie autobiography essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Andrew Carnegie is a steel plant owner who claims to support unions and the working man. His charge is that he ignored the legitimate grievances of his employees at his plant in Homestead Pennsylvania and that his neglect contributed to the death of several of his employees during a strike at Homestead in June of 1892 and that he should be held accountable. Andrew Carnegie has dealt with strikes at his plants before. One strike was at his plant in Braddock Pennsylvania where he settled with the workers by agreeing to higher pay but without input from the Union, essentially ruining it. The union at Homestead was one of the last unions in any of his plants.
Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie’s was one of the most successful businessmen during America’s Age of Industrialization in the 1880’s. After the Civil War, he saw a future in having a career in the iron industry, and later on, decided to invest in the steel industry (PBS). Though Carnegie is most known for his contribution in the steel industry, he took part in a few other businesses as well. However, the Gilded Age is an era full of poverty and corruption hidden underneath the prosperous, wealthy nation, and the working conditions within Carnegie Steel Company were not much better than those in other factories (Resetar).
1) Andrew Carnegie used vertical integration, controlling every step in the process of manufacturing a product, dominating the market. Vertical integration is when the company owns all means of distribution from beginning to end, this makes supplies more reliable and improved efficiency. It controlled the quality of the product at all stages of production. Horizontal integration was used by John D. Rockefeller and is an act of joining or consolidating with one’s competitors to create a monopoly. In Ohio in 1870 he organized the Standard Oil Company.
Just like the treatment his workers endured Carnegie wasn't any nicer to his competitors. Andrew Carnegie was a phenomenal businessman. Much of his success is due to how he operated his business. He watched the costs of his business intently (Document C), always making sure that the steel was being produced at a lower price than what it was being sold for (Document D), and he watched his competitors even closer. In March 1889, when Allegheny Bessemer Steel built a mill directly across from Carnegie's mill it intimidated Carnegie.
Andrew Carnegie Flame spewing from the mighty Bessemer converters at Pittsburgh as molten iron was changed into steel. That steel would carry on to create our railroads that went out into the great wild west and built our skyscrapers in our cities high in the sky. Such as the iconic Flatiron building. This Steel came from great huge egg shaped furnaces that glowed red hot from all the molten steel that they contained in there vastness. These Furnaces were called Bessemer’s.
Andrew Carnegie was an industrialist, business mogul, and a philanthropist who led the growth of the American steel industry. Born to a poor Scottish family, Carnegie later grew up and began working in the steel industry and worked his way up from there. Carnegie worked at the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1853 as the assistant and telegrapher to Thomas Scott, one of the railroad's top officials. Three years later, he was promoted to superintendent and began making investments. He spent most of his earnings on Pittsburgh; building libraries, museums, a university and a concert hall.
Carnegie used the tactic of vertical integration to gain control of anything related to the production of steel, including railroads and iron mines, in order to reduce his costs and produce steel cheaper. Although this is a tactic related to the idea of social darwinism, compared to horizontal integration used by Rockefeller, it is a fair way to gain an advantage over one’s competitors. In his essay, Wealth, Carnegie strongly supports the impact of social darwinism stating that “it insures the survival of the fittest” in every aspect of industry (Doc 3). His support for social darwinist tactics is demonstrated through his rise to industrial power, but is also combatted through his attention to philanthropy. Andrew Carnegie stated that the wealthy have responsibility to give back to society through donations to libraries, universities, and other intellectual institutes which is fulfilled in the later years of his reign when he sold his company to rival J.P. Morgan and used his fortune for the greater good.
Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835 to William Carnegie and Margaret Morrison Carnegie in Dunfermline, Scotland. Carnegie’s father was a linen weaver, but in 1847, steam- powered looms became popular in Dunfermline leaving many of the hand loom weavers unneeded. Margaret Carnegie stepped up to the plate to provide for the family by repairing shoes and opening a small grocery store. In 1848, Carnegie and his parents made the passage to America where they joined his mother’s sisters in Pittsburgh. Carnegie later wrote that he would learn what it was like to live in poverty and to watch his father beg for money.
I categorized Andrew Carnegie a Captain of Industry after learning of his philanthropic views and actions. Carnegie not only obtained a wealth from working hard and wisely investing but used most of his fortune to make a difference on the world. Carnegie own words categorize the essence of generosity and kind hearth. I cannot disagree with him when he stated that “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced”
Andrew Carnegie was a great business man by the end of his life but there are some minor details of his earlier life that show his cons. The purpose of Carnegie Steel made it possible for the east and west to unite in the construction of more railroads and transportation of goods. During that time he led his workers into intense labor and decreased pay which encouraged them to stand up for themselves to a strike that ended in many fatalities. Although these corrupt actions were made during Carnegie’s life in the end he realized it was wrong and did philanthropic deeds; for instance he sold his business and gave his wealth away to libraries and charitable organizations. Andrew Carnegie made mass impact to the United States through vertical integration, implementing new technology to industry like the Bessemer process and later in life giving his wealth to the
Corruption was prevalent in the United States during the 1900s. Fraud existed in major industries, such as monopolies or unsafe working conditions. Several people wanting reform wrote books and articles about the industries which made a large impact on the consumers and users of industries. This put pressure on the president to make changes in regulating these industries. Muckrakers, a group of journalists, exposed corrupt issues to the American public, which brought reform to many major industries such as oil, railroads, and government.
There are two faces of industry and two sides of Carnegie. One in which he is an employer and the other in which he was a man who gave his money to the better good, in which he was a philanthropist and a hero (Doc. 10). Yes, Carnegie benefited off of the people who worked for him, but being the head of the industry, he worked hard to get there and in the same conditions as his workers do now, to reach those benefits, and to gain his wealth (background). The Oxford Press, in 1970, published Carnegie's philanthropy, his total givings overall was listed at $350,695,653, most of it went to universities and educational purposes (Doc. 9). The Carnegie Corporation's net assets in 2005 were listed at $2,167,000,000, the foundation is currently giving out one-hundred million dollars a year, most of it to education (Doc. 9).
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
In this essay, I’ll be telling you my opinion on whether Andrew Carnegie was a hero or not. Andrew Carnegie, known as the king of steel, grew up poor, but became one of the richest and most successful business owner during the 1800s and 1900s. Much of the world regarded Carnegie as the most famous living American during his time. Andrew Carnegie was not a hero because he showed off his money, treated his workers poorly, and was selfish. First of all, Andrew Carnegie flashes his wealth.
Carnegie is not a hero because he took money, only gave to other wealthy recipients, and contributed largely to his own. Andrew Carnegie took money away from deserving people. Carnegie cut the wages of his workers to donate money elsewhere. In document D, there are two images of Carnegie, one is giving a wage cut notice to the workers and the other is giving a check to Scotland and donating a library to Pittsburg. Carnegie’s employees were working hard and trying to survive in a tough economy, their wages did not deserve a cut.