Source of book cover image: http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781594201042_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG
Andrew Carnegie was a famous, much reviled, and much praised innovative entrepreneur. He is not my favorite innovative entrepreneur. He was happy to have the government protect the steel industry, and he tried to have his sidekick take all the blame for a violent episode at his steel works. But he worked hard (at least in his early decades), was often generous, fought against Teddy Roosevelt’s imperialism, and most importantly, he greatly improved the process for making steel, thereby increasing its quality and decreasing its price.
Nasaw’s serious and substantial biography is useful at untangling and documenting the good and the bad. In the next several weeks, I will be quoting some of the more important or thought-provoking passages in the book.
Nasaw’s biography of Carnegie is:
Nasaw, David. Andrew Carnegie. New York: Penguin Press, 2006.
(Note: the pagination of the hardback and paperback editions of Nasaw’s book are the same.)