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Was Andrew Carnegie A Hero Or A Villain

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The distribution of wealth has always been a conflict of interest between those in an industrial society. Many times, we find the all the poor being grouped as oppressed, and all the rich being grouped as oppressive. But this is not the most accurate way of thinking. We see Andrew Carnegie as part of the rich being grouped as oppressive, or a villain. Given the fact that he saw his success in the height of the American Era of Industrialization, Carnegie got a lot of backlash for the issues surrounding the poor that worked for him. But he cannot simply be defined by the issues with the wage decrease, and therefore, does not deserve to be called a villain. Carnegie received a lot of hatred from those working under him. Most of the rhetoric unsurprisingly arose around the time of the Homestead Strike, when workers revolted against the …show more content…

This is exemplified in Document O, which was a comic published around the time of the strike. Carnegie is shown decreasing the wages of workers and giving away gifts to other areas of interest. Given that the document was published at the time of increased insecurity and anger, we cannot take it as a full, unbiased reflection of how people thought back then. Document I shows that during the same year of the strike, steel workers were actually making more than many other industrial wages, and working the same amount of hours. A wage cut did happen though and even if it was not bad on a general platform, it hurt many steel workers. Carnegie could have easily ignored the issues and let it die out, but he seemed to have tried and fix the problem. We are not sure why he didn't increase wages, and so we have to assume there was something holding him back. To compensate though, he gave away 4 million dollars, from his pocket, to a Homestead relief fund

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219 Words | 1 Pages

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.

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According to the Average Daily Hours and Average Daily Wages in US Manufacturing 1892(document 7) showed that the average working hours per day of Carnegie workers were around 10 hours and the wages per day was about 1.5$ which is very cheap. According to document 8, showed about his thought about rich people. He told that the man who was rich will die with honor. He concern about rich people but did not care about the labourers. This Business thought and management could be the important evidences to proof that he was not a

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Carnegie was “One of the richest men in Gilded Age America, he promoted what he called the Gospel of Wealth, the idea that those who accumulated money had an obligation to use it to promote the advancement of society. ”(Foner pg.32) This is exactly how he used his wealth to help the less fortunate. Although the Gilded age was good, there were a lot of negatives. There was a tremendous amount of “economic inequality because the state did not regulate the growth of business.

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Andrew Carnegie, a late 19th century steel magnate, was immensely successful during the Gilded Age. He kept wages low while eliminating competition, so that workers had no choice but to stay in Carnegie’s company. The Gilded Age is so called because the top appeared to be gold (i.e. the richest people were doing extremely well) but on the inside there were insurmountable wealth inequalities (I.e the rich succeeded at the expense of the rest of the nation). Andrew Carnegie was a large causer of wealth inequality . In his “Gospel of Wealth” he justifies the trend by stating that in an ideal world the rich would give to the poor, but unfortunately our world is impossible.

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1191 Words | 5 Pages

Carnegie could have discussed the reservations the poor had about the ability of some to become rich through industrialization and how they felt about his Gospel of Wealth. Did the poor really want money from the rich, who had control of many forces throughout the nation? Carnegie fails to provide a bias opinion on the divide between the rich and the poor because he is no longer poor. He expresses the faults in the wealthy hoarding their money for themselves, but continues to believe the wealthy should exist. The classifications of rich and poor also goes against Carnegie’s belief that the American society was changing into something new, when in reality they were adopting some of the old colonial ways like

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789 Words | 4 Pages

Andrew Carnegie was a “robber baron” as shown in the way he acted towards the people who helped him reach the top and the terrible working environment that he subjected his workers to. He did various things in an attempt to positively alter his public image by overshadowing the awful things he had done. At the start of Carnegie’s career in business, he worked under Thomas Scott where he learned how to be successful in business. Minimizing costs were the best way to make a business profitable and lowering those required cutting wages, demanding 13 hour days and utilizing spies as a way to thwart possible strikes. He would use many of these ideas and practices in his own business causing him to eventually become the undisputed king of steel.

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Meet You in Hell Essay Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America is written by Les Standiford. Standiford is a historian and author who lives in Miami. In “Meet You in Hell”, Standiford tells the story of two men during America’s Gilded Age, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, who rise to be among the wealthiest men in history. Carnegie and Frick rise to power, dominating the new found Industrial Era.

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As a philanthropist, he donated money to support education and other facilities. However, his philanthropy cannot cover up the fact that he was still a villain. That leads to the big question: Did Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropy make him a hero? In my opinion, his philanthropy did not make him a hero at all for various reasons. One of the myriad reasons of Carnegie not being a hero was because he hired

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Andrew Carnegie's company Carnegie Steel Company spread across Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to transport goods from city to city (Doc 5). In 1900 Andrew Carnegie made the large amount of $23,000,000, therefore, his daily wage would be about $92,000 (Doc 7). This evidence helps explain why Andrew Carnegie was a hero because when he started the steel mill he gained integrity and trust among the American

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One piece of evidence that supports this reason is in document B. We can see that Carnegie said that he didn't want to leave his money with his family. But inside of leaving his money with his family, He would leave it to better uses. I believe in not leaving all of his money with his family because they didn't work for it and other people need it. A second piece of supporting evidence is in document B as well. He didn't leave his money with his family.

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That made Carnegie feel intimidated so Carnegie basically sabotaged his company by sending out notices to railroads telling them that Allegheny’s business would lead to defective rails which would in the end cause fatal acciendents. In the end Csrnegie was sucessful with this because Allegheny’s business sufferend and Carnegie took control of the works. This shows that Carnegie didn’t like competition because it made him lose money and because Carnegie loved his money he would do anything within his power to take down any competetion completely and only gain money for himself. This proves that Carnegie is also not a Hero because he doesn’t play fair instead of Carnegie trying to negotiate a deal with Allegheny he took him out and stole his business

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1329 Words | 6 Pages

The boom of industrialization in the United States lead to several changes throughout the nation that forever affected both the economy, as well as workers within it. One such worker was named Andrew Carnegie, who as a boy began in a very poor family, but then throughout his life worked hard to advance up to one of the highest positions in the steel manufacturing industry. This made his presence widely known throughout the American economy, and furthermore later brought up the argument: was Andrew Carnegie a hero? Throughout his life, though primarily during his career, Andrew Carnegie made several debatable choices concerning his work. These choices further clouded the argument as to whether he was a hero or not.

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408 Words | 2 Pages

Carnegie could have offered more to his employers who risked their lives each day to provide him with a successful

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677 Words | 3 Pages

The strikers eventually won causing the company to stay closed. Then five days later the governor in Pennsylvania sent soldiers to restore order and re-open the the plant. Two months later the strike was called off, Carnegie was criticized for Fricks actions. Carnegie did a lot to achieve his large empire, he fought competitors and made good business

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460 Words | 2 Pages

This is also known as the Homestead Strike. Carnegie then hired Pinkerton thugs to attack the workers. In the same excerpt, the author says, “he hired Pinkerton thugs to intimidate strikers. Many were killed in the conflict, and it was an episode that would forever hurt Carnegie's reputation and haunt the man.” He uses unfair ways to have a successful business through low wages, and using wealth to his

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