Andrew Carnegie's The Gospel Of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie and Samuel Gomper have different takes when it comes to the role that wealthy people should have in society. The two authors have opposed feelings toward the poor people being in the state of condition that they are in. Although their views are different what they are proposing in both documents can help the poor people. Carnegie’s The Gospel of Wealth focus more on what the wealthy people should do with their wealth to benefit the society.

“ The Philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie” was written in the second half of the 19th century. During this time railroads, oil, flour, and tobacco were being introduced. Nothing was more successful as the steel industry that Andrew Carnegie introduced. Andrew Carnegie is known as being a “hero” to many people during this time of period. Carnegie has courage, concern for others, and charisma.

Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish American leader was best known for his steel and production and philanthropy also know as to some as a robber baron and to other as a “captain industry,” Carnegie founded the Carnegie Steel in the Progressive Era. His company led to him learning about the lives of the workers and to see how life really worked for them. He began his essay “Wealth” by describing the problems of generosity by the rich men of the upper class. Carnegie wanted the wealthy men to comprehend how to be philanthropy and reconstruct their surplus means in a responsible and thoughtful manner.

During the late 1800’s, early 1900’s America began the famous industrial race to success. At the head of the race, yearning for success, was Andrew Carnegie. Scotland born in 1835, Carnegie moved to the United States with nothing but soon grew with prosperous steps, speeding his way to the top as a profitable business man through the steel industry. His path to success may be filled with some hardship of distrust and mishaps with money hungry co-workers, but in the end he created, with his infinite wealth, enormous amounts of buildings and educational centers to benefit mankind in the long run. This is a deed of a kind man.

Andrew Carnegie believed that money from wealthy men should be used for projects that would benefit the society. As a power of major business was growing, the difference between rich and poor was great concern for the government. He emphasized that giving money away to the poor will not bring any benefit to people in need, but if you use this money to build schools, libraries, or parks, then it will improve the overall lifestyle of the underprivileged. It would improve their thinking abilities and improve their general condition. Andrew Carnegie always had an eye to bring change that will be the permanent solution for the ongoing issue.

There had to be a way to keep the industry growing, with the needs for education, as well as materials for farming and for the use of new inventions in technology. The captains of industry were very capable in providing for these needs. In Document C, Wealth, Andrew Carnegie describes what the man of wealth was responsible for: “To produce the most beneficial results for the community- Bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.” The conditions of the lower class at the time gave these men a leading role for priorities, which they were successful with.

Was Andrew Carnegie a Hero During the late 19th century, Andrew Carnegie made an investment in the steel industry that profited into a fortune, but Carnegie’s earlier life didn’t include wealth. In fact, his family immigrated from Scotland to America in the mid 1800s in search for opportunities. After working tirelessly for many years, Andrew Carnegie became one of the most successful businessmen and philanthropists of all time. Although he accomplished many achievements in the Industry there are underlying reasons indicating that Carnegie was not a hero, such as, his wealth management, inconsiderate work conditions, and hypocrisy.

As the document B provide us with a review of North America Review, June 1889 titled “Wealth” by Andrew Carnegie. In this document we can analyze the ways of how wealth is disposed the first is keep it for your descendants, being this a wrong way to educate your children giving wealth without having worked to achieved, the second way is the leaving it for public uses after your death, but he criticized this by “Why should a man wait until his dead before he becomes of much good in the world?”, and the last one is the one he praise of set an example of “modest, living and to produce the most beneficial result for the community” By this he explain and implement a new model of use of wealth in the world for the common good making donations and improving

The life of a coal miner is not so different from the views of Andrew Carnegie. In the Gilded Age, a lot of youthful boys and men would work endless hours to only get from sixty cents to a dollar every day. Carnegie would focus on how the upper class would misuse their money for selfish needs. These young coal miners would work more than these rich “snobs” and still get a salary of less that 200 dollars a year. That is what Carnegie was stressing in his Gospel of Wealth.

The late nineteenth century was a pivotal moment in American history. During this time, the Industrial Revolution transformed the nation, railroads had dissipated all throughout the country, and economic classes began to form, separating the wealthy from the poor. One of the wealthiest men of this generation was Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who fled to America to make millions off the railroad, oil and even steel businesses. Carnegie is considered one of the richest men in history, and even with all that wealth he decided to give back to the community. As a matter of fact, Carnegie donated most of his funds to charities, universities and libraries in his last few years.

The captains of industry believed that the poor people were inferior to the rich people. The rich were superior because they had “wisdom, experience, and the ability to administer”. The duty of a rich person was to help out a poor person which was what was said in the Gospel of Wealth. The Gospel of Wealth is about how the rich person's responsibility is philanthropy. Carnegie believes in charity work so he would donate to libraries, and universities and schools and etc.

At the end of the 19th Century, as the United States was experiencing rapid industrialization, a reconfiguration of the social order yielded opposing visions of social progress. Andrew Carnegie, wealthy businessman, and Jane Addams, founder of Chicago’s Hull House, put forward different methods to achieve such progress, where Addams focuses on creating social capital in a seemingly horizontal manner while Carnegie advocates for a top-down approach. While both of them seem to reap a sense of purpose from their attempts to improve the nation, their approaches vary depending on their vision of the composition of the population they want to uplift. First, Carnegie and Addams’ desire to improve society is partly self-serving. For Carnegie, improving society is the role of the wealthy man who, “animated by Christ’s spirit” (“Wealth”), can administer wealth for the community better than it could have for itself (“Wealth”).

Andrew Carnegie was one of the most famous and wealthiest American industrialist during the Industrial Age. He was a robber baron who made a fortune in the steel industry and applied vertical integration to his business. Carnegie contradicted his views as a robber baron because he supported, but destroyed many unions. This made many of his views unethical.

In a brief introduction, the 19th century was marked by the development of scientific knowledge. The search for new technologies, leveraged by the Industrial Revolution, caused scholars to multiply in various areas of knowledge. At that time, various academies and associations geared for the "progress of science" recognized the figure of scientists and put them as important agents of social transformation. In 1889, with the publication of the book "The Gospel of Wealth", Andrew Carnegie comes to the classical approach of social responsibility of the large companies.

Underpinnings and Effectiveness of Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” In Andrew Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth”, Carnegie proposed a system of which he thought was best to dispose of “surplus wealth” through progress of the nation. Carnegie wanted to create opportunities for people “lift themselves up” rather than directly give money to these people. This was because he considered that giving money to these people would be “improper spending”.