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Andrew Carnegie

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Andrew Carnegie

By: David Nasaw
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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About this listen

 Andrew Carnegie, whose lifetime spanned the era from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the First World War was America's first modern titan. In this magnificent biography, celebrated historian David Nasaw brings to life this period of unprecedented transition - a time of self-made millionaires, scabs, strikes, and a new kind of philanthropy - through the fascinating rags-to-riches story of one of our most iconic business legends.

The Scottish-born son of a failed weaver and a mother who supported the family by binding shoes, Andrew Carnegie was the embodiment of the American dream. In his rise from a job as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory to being the richest man in the world, he was single-minded, relentless, and a major player in some of the most violent and notorious labor strikes of the time. The prototype of today's billionaire, he was a visionary in the way he earned his money and in the way he gave it away.

Nasaw explains how Carnegie made his fortune and how he tried to pull the world back from a war he predicted. Brimming with new material, personal letters, diaries, prenuptial agreements, letters to and from presidents and prime ministers, Nasaw plumbs the core of this fascinating man, fixing him in his place as one of the most compelling, elusive, and multifaceted personalities of the 20th century.

©2006 David Nasaw (P)2007 Gildan Media Corp Americas Business Entertainment & Celebrities Historical Politicians Politics & Activism Professionals & Academics United States Celebrity War American History Gilded Age Franklin D Roosevelt Imperialism

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Critic reviews

"This is biography on the grand scale." ( Washington Post Book World)
All stars
Most relevant  
interesting story about a great man and a lot to learn...very objective story and excellent narrator

Great book by all standards...I enjoyed it

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A very long audio book, which is good if you like to go for very long walks.

The author is very thorough in getting in as much detail as possible, maybe too much detail, but in the end you feel that you know the full unbiased story.

I listened to it on holiday which might not have been ideal as much of it is about work.

First making money and then giving it away.

Unfortunately he wasted a lot of his valuable time trying to prevent the first world war.

I got fond of Mr Carnagie.

Unbiased

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very thorough detailed overview of amdrew carnegies life. Great comparision to other biographies he comissioned and his wife comissioned after his death. Very easy listen and thankfully done chronologically.

very thorough detail of his life. easy listen

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A well researched and insightful account of the now iconic Andrew Carnegie.

Riveting and one that you will probably come back to again.

A riveting book.

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Really interesting and with fascinating detail. It was WAY too long though and became a personal quest to finish it. I’m glad I listened to it. We were left to draw our own conclusions about the man which was really nice - he was complicated as he did many dodgy things, even by the standards of the day he exploited his workers but was also driven to try to avoid WW1. Overall worth the investment.

Loooong

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David Nasaw does a brilliant job of portraying Carnegie and the reading by Grover Gardner is up to his usual top standards. I would have welcomed a bit more on the social and political side of his times, such as labour relations and anti-trust moves by the government. But that is a personal preference on my part, not a criticsm of the author who keeps his narrative focussed on the man himself and his many fascinating friendships and business acquaintances. Problem is that much of Carnegie's thinking is a bit simple if not childlike. So you can't help being pleased when Mr. Frick or President Roosevelt tire of his weedling and send him a sharp reproach. At the same time, Carnegie was clearly a very genuine, clever and affable man who was well liked, at least by his friends.

Excellent biography

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Very interesting and informative, it was generally well read although the performance was let down by mispronunciation of several names and places.

Enjoyable but frustrating

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I knew only the headlines of Carnegies life, and of course the ubiquitousness of his endowments etc. This detailed and well researched biography drew a picture of an unusually optimistic if contradictory man. His adherence to certain political capitalist doctrine’s may seem misguided or at any rate too narrow a concept to build an entire sociopolitical ideology on, in hindsight, but his search for ways to enable lasting peace between nations and which so many leaders of the day seem to have privately ridiculed, have borne fruit in the post WW2 world. The seeds he planted have wrought some value, if only in underpinning other later structures such as the European Union and the International Court in The Hague. I was expecting some sort of epilogue that looked at the continuing impact of his ideas and of his bequests, of which there was none. This seems a gap. So much if the mans own correspondence survives such that his personality does seem to be fully excavated and we have first hand accounts of the events of his life from his own perspective and those of his interlocutors. Nonetheless, a little examination of his psyche based on his own words and deeds might have been interesting (can he have been so positive so much of the time or was it a technique he had learned to use etc) in any case its a quality biography of a man who was almost as interesting as his times.

Comprehensive and enlightening

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Any additional comments?

This comprehensive history of Andrew Carnegie is worth persevering with. But it takes a lot of stamina! It describes Carnegie's work and life in great detail - and at times you can't help feeling you have heard something identical in a previous chapter. But the delightful Grover Gardner narrates well and helps keep your interest.

I was left with the feeling that Carnegie was perhaps not the hero he is now held up to be. Yes, he may be the godfather of philanthropy.....but his employee relations skills had some room for improvement!

Hard work, but worth persevering with.

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You know his name, now listen to his story.

You think you knew him, but this book shines a light on to the dissing world of one of the world's greatest titans and the methods used to build his empire.

The Little Scotsman

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