The darkest side of Carnegie’s character emerged when he and his partners reversed earlier policies of rewarding workers with high wages and benefits, allowing unions to operate freely. A shrewd investor, he survived economic panics and made out fine in booms, shielded by a strategy of using other people’s money to expand his interests.
Carnegie’s Protestant ethics became situational he hired a substitute in the Civil War and guided money into his own pocket as a civilian advisor to the government. He also had a Machiavellian bent, and by the time he was 30, he had built a financial empire based on insider contracts to supply the Pennsylvania Railroad with materials and build iron bridges for it. A poor Scottish immigrant, Carnegie impressed a succession of employers with his skills, intelligence and diligence.
Warren Buffett’s recent decision to give most of his $30-billion-plus fortune to charity squares neatly with Carnegie’s view that it is a mark of shame to die with money in the bank in that matter, but not alone, Nasaw’s overstuffed and very well-written biography is timely and instructive. This “LIVE from the NYPL” event, at the Celeste Bartos Forum of the New York Public Research Library of Humanities and Social Sciences, was co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center.ĭavid Nasaw talked about his biography, Andrew Carnegie, published by Penguin Press.Robber baron? Capitalist butcher? Angel? Industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie has been many things to many people, and in this grand biography, he’s all of them. After their presentations, both gentlemen responded to audience members' questions.
Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation and former president of the New York Public Library, joined in the discussion and talked about the formation of the Carnegie Corporation. While he was relatively young and poor, Carnegie decided to give all his money away in his lifetime. In his book Professor Nasaw, using new material, explained how Andrew Carnegie rose from poverty to become the richest person in the world using practices that are outlawed today. T18:58:57-05:00 David Nasaw talked about his biography, Andrew Carnegie, published by Penguin Press.
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