Customer Reviews

Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business (Library of American Biography Series) (3rd Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I was given this book to read as a requirement of my United States History Class in college. I am 36 years old and had heard of Mr. Carnegie, ie; Carnegie Hall in New York, but knew nothing of the man or his greatness. This book is an easily read biography of Andrew Carnegie and his successes and failures, the latter being few. The book reads easily and quickly, yet covers a great deal of information and circumstances in Carnegies life; letting the reader know and understand Mr. Andrew Carnegie more. I am pleased this was an assigned book and a required reading. I have a much better understanding of the industrial revolution and of Mr. Carnegie. I think anyone needing information on the Industrial Revolution or Andrew Carnegie will find this book very helpful, interesting, easy to read and informative. I certainly did.

Andrew Carnegie really epitomized the American Dream. His rags to riches story, while unusual in its extent, was the life every poor person's vision encompassed. His family was poor in Scotland, and even poorer after they immigrated to Pennsylvania. Carnegie's first job in a textile mill paid little, but it was a step in the right direction. Carnegie worked long and hard to support his family, and that hard work paid off eventually.
Once Carnegie had amassed enough money to be deemed `respectable' he began his real climb to unbelievable wealth. He learned management skills while working for the railroad - a very complex business. It was while working for the railroad that Carnegie became obsessed with costs. It was by controlling costs that he was able to make such huge fortunes in the steel industry. His management techniques would probably not work today, because he was such a bully to his management team.
Carnegie's career mirrored the Industrial Revolution as a whole. He used the latest technology and the most efficient practices to make his factories grow. Unlike his competition, he was concerned with costs, not profit itself, because he knew that low costs led to greater profits. He also was different than the rest of the industrialists because he sold his steel mills and retired to become a great philanthropist.
When Carnegie was starting out, he tried to take care of the people who worked for him, but as his business grew, he saw them more as replaceable parts of a machine. He originally thought labor unions were a good thing, but later fiercely and violently resisted strikes. He needed to retain control over all the workers - hiring and firing, working conditions, even how fast workers were supposed to work. He did not allow his workers any control over their work.
Carnegie left a complex legacy. His many charitable gifts, especially the many Carnegie libraries built around the country, were a blessing for the less fortunate. However, his ruthless behavior in constructing his industry cannot be condoned by today's standards of ethical practices. He was definitely a man of his times and should be remembered as just that.
This book is short, readable, and contains interesting facts without overloading the reader.

Funny how it turns out that we only read these books in school. I read this for my first year American History class.

The book revolves around Carnegie and his rise to sucess during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

In the wake of the industrial revolution many indivduals like Carnegie succeeded. We see this with the Rockefellers who were the worlds first billionaires and with Carnegie , who was the first billionaire of the 20th century.

By the integration of horizontal and verticle industries we see how he has accomplished this. Again, the opportunity is here for us as the information age is still in it's infancy.

It involves both aspects from a historical look at an american immigrant and the ideal "American Dream". The economic outlook is equally helpful studying how he valued verticle and horizontal integration of industries.

steve@virtualpage.com

Really enjoyed reading this book. Didn't know much about Andrew Carnegie before I read this book. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. He lived in a time that shaped the future of American and his influence in the American steel industry is well documented in this book. He was truly a remarkable man who made the most of his immigration to America and the opportunities he was given.

Normally, I don't really get into reading books for classes, I just get on with them and that's that. I'd like to say this book was different, but I can't go that far. It was slow in the start from his beginnings, but towards the end it offers some good business advice and some of the strategies he used to make it big during his time period of an evolving society and America. Not a bad read if you care about other people's entire life story, but since I can say that I don't, it was just OK. I wouldn't have picked up the book if I didn't HAVE to, and I'll leave it at that. Not a bad read, but not great either.

easy read! very informative on the whole processes of the steel and railroad companies and production.

Livesay's book is neither a good biography of Carnegie nor a good essay on the rise of big business.
The book fails to paint a good psychological profile of the man, and fails to give the reader a good grasp of the man's intellectual make-up. Through choice examples one gets a bit of Carnegie's business philosophy, ethics and practice, but not a textured account of his travails and successes.
The book emphasizes the poor-Scott-to-rich-American story, but it leaves out most of Carnegie's personal life development. As a any reader of historical biographies knows, this part colors the personal motivation of great achievers.
As a text on the history of the rise of big business in America, this book is really short on substance.
Of course, its shortness and clear writing makes it a perfect book for the busy college student that needs a quick read on Carnegie or a broad-stroke brush with that time-period and of early American Industrial Revolution. This point earns the book its two stars.

I'm also reading this for a history class, and I really don't like it. I should mention that I'm only four chapters in at this point, but I'm seriously doubting my ability to finish it - and I'm an English major, so I'm pretty good at reading anything I have to. The first chapter isn't so bad - it's about the Carnegie family's immigration and beginning in America - but as the book goes on, it seems to get dryer and dryer, and the story becomes more about capitalism and industry than about Carnegie himself. It describes how each business got better at doing stuff, and then how much money it made, and then how it changed something, and then how much money it made, and then the change in management..... It's probably a useful book for learning about "big business" if you're into that sort of thing, but I find it incredibly boring to read about how Carnegie wanted to be in charge of things all the time, and how he came up with ideas about how to make more money off his businesses. I've read worse books, but for an intro-level history course, I should be more engaged - and for a biography, I'd like to feel like I know the man it's about. The author talks vaguely about how Carnegie was persuasive and had friends, but he still feels very mysterious and unfamiliar. All I know is that he liked to make money out of money. The author may be trying to avoid melodrama, but that doesn't mean all the interesting personal stuff should be cut out. And if I have to learn about big business, I'd rather not read a long narrative about it - a textbook format would probably be more accessible and interesting.

Also, the pun regarding an oil merchant's "oleaginous imagination" made me die a little inside.

I have to say that the book is well written by the author. The inner world lives of the Carnegies is explained. The leaving of Scotland due to the machine factories putting the commoners out of work is explained in detail. The goals of Andrew when he is a teenager are also explained, and the man who molded Andrew to become successful in life. The whole world focuses on him, and it is good. The only thing I found interesting was that the book did not say at all if Andrew Carnegie interacted with African Americans at all. It also did not emphasis the women who fell in love with the man[at the work place]. It is bound to happen . Those inner details are not explained , but alot is said in detail in how he got to be at the top. This book does not have any photographs at all inside the book. The book is of good size. book is recommended to all[WOMEN & MEN] who want to know about the man, and the time century-the nineteenth century.

I was required to read this book for my history class. It was probably the most boring book that I have ever read. Every time I started to read it I would fall asleep. I tried to read a chapter each day, but I ended up reading a page or two then passing out. The book goes too far into specifics and numbers in certain areas of his life which takes away from the story. This made the book almost unbearable to read. If you are having trouble sleeping at night then you should go out and buy this book, but if you are looking for a good read, think again.