Andrew Carnegie

By: David Nasaw

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 32 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Critic reviews

"This is biography on the grand scale." ( Washington Post Book World)

Although author hates Carnegie, I grew to love him

Carnegie wrote letters profusely and you get to know the man and his amazing story. It was a little annoying that the author clearly hated Carnegie for being a capitalist, but Andrew's character shines through regardless.

Good value but tedious, narrator disappointing

Carnegie’s story is interesting, especially his early years and his life-long relationship with his birthplace. But the author's account often becomes one tedious detail after another, especially in part 4 in which he quotes virtually all of Carnegie’s weekly letters to an English friend in full. Grover Gardner is usually one of my favorite narrators, but he really flubbed this one. I noticed frequent and in some cases repeated mispronunciations of proper names including A.T. Mahan; no doubt there were others I didn’t catch. And he got a surprising number of plain words wrong; one I remember was prescient. Not a bad listen and good value for the money. But you have to be awfully interested in Andrew Carnegie to stick with it until the end.

Everything you ever wanted to know about...

If you could sum up Andrew Carnegie in three words, what would they be?

Interesting and detailed

Would you recommend Andrew Carnegie to your friends? Why or why not?

Very interesting insight into 19th Century capitalism through the life of its greatest success story.

Really good tells an interesting & inspiring story

Great book on a very interesting and inspiring fellow that took destiny into his own hands.

3/5

The narrator did a good job for this relatively dry and very long biography. I felt like certain details could have been omitting without losing the essence of who Carnegie was.

The best business biography I aver.

Grover Gardner has a very natural story-telling voice which draws you in and keeps you wanting more.

This book has made Carnegie seem more human in many ways for I have always had an almost a God-like perception of him after reading the Gospel of Wealth essay.

This book also made me want to visit Scotland!

top of the line historical research!

Where does Andrew Carnegie rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

the very best

Any additional comments?

The volume of the book is quite staggering but I never thought of quitting at any part as i have done with some books in the past. As someone who has read both his biography of himself and David Nasaw's, this story of Andrew Carnegie gives another perspective on the life of a real titan of industry and world affairs in an enjoyable narrative starting from pre-birth to the very end. Great read!

Robber Baron indeed

Excellently written, well read, I'd give this book 5 stars except for it's length. There's probably too much detail, but I don't know what I'd take out. Still, if you know nothing about the money and power grabbing of the later 19th and early 20th century, this may be too long for a beginning.

If you get angry easily, you might want to skip this one, too. To give you an idea of the impact of this book on me - it made me wish I believed in hell. Carnegie belongs there. I've never thought that Carnegie, or any of his "peers" were generous, warm hearted people, even when they were doling money out to good causes. It surprised me, but Carnegie was even worse than I had previously thought.

David Nasaw paints a vivid picture of this self-made man as he rose to the level of "the richest man in the world." Nasaw describes the early insider deals, hustling sales of bonds and securities, the conspicous consumption in an increasingly luxurious life (especially overseas beyond the sight of the American press), and the strategies to wring profits from his steel interests while demanding 12-hour workdays and decreasing income for his workers. Nasaw also details the force employed by this friend of the working man to keep those men working long hours in dangerous tasks, breaking strikes at the cost of workmen's lives.

It's a sorry tale, but a fascinating one.

A Self Educated Man

Carnegie was born in Scotland and came to America at 10 years of age. He work as a bobbin boy then a telegram delivery boy. One of the key items that struck me about Carnegie was that he did not go to school but he was driven to learn all he could and become an educated man. He learned to read and write, then set off to teach himself Morse code so he could get a job as a telegraph operator. He continue to learn from books and from people and continue to improve his job opportunities until he was a business owner and became a self made millionaire. The other item I noted was that he claimed he was interested in the workers because he was one of them. At first he accepted the unions and was reasonably good to the employers of his various business but then he seemed to turn and was ruthless in breaking the unions and poorly paid his workers and forced 12 hour shifts with NO breaks at all. He build them libraries and swimming pools but never gave them time to use them. When he retired and was giving his money away he did set up a pension plan for injured worker (in companies he had owned) and/or their families and a scholarships for their children. Maybe that was guilt. He was far more generous with strangers than his workers or partners. He was a true Robber Barron. I was very interest in the parts of the book regarding the strikes and also his philanthropy. He was a complicated man. Nasaw did a a good job of pointing out discrepancies between different biographies and what he could prove. Carnegie was a constant reader and traveler who also set out to make friends with powerful people.

The Best Encore Ever

Andrew Carnegie was a very interesting man. He worked hard, took chances, and became rich. He then retreated from direct management of his operations, drove his managers relentlessly, and became even richer. He obsessed over his fortune, ground everyone including his partners under his heal, and became the richest man in the world. Then as an encore, he gave it all away. I can't say his moneymaking, made me jealous, but I learned that he was the friend and dinner companion of Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain, and that did make me jealous.

David Nasaw certainly went through a massive research effort for this book. I wish he had stopped after he had presented three good examples and then moved on to his next point.

Grover Gardner gave a steady and solid performance despite the length of the book. He deserves high marks for this effort.