Scott Ewen

Intro to Carnegie Bibliography

HIS-150 Final

“Whereas most men enjoyed making money, he in contrast delighted in seeing his fortune diminish. There never lived a man who had as much fun in giving away his wealth as Carnegie.”[1] This was Andrew Carnegie. This was a man who started with nothing in Scotland and eventually had everything. But like this quote talks about, this was a most unique man not because of the fortune he made, for there have been other men throughout the ages who have amassed wealth, but for what he did with it and the impact he had on America as we know.

Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland. He was born to Margaret and Will Carnegie. His father Will was a skilled weaver, and the Carnegies were not unlike many of the working-class families in Dunfermline. When the family could not survive in Scotland any longer, they, on borrowed money they decided to go to America. “On May 17, 1848, amid tears and final God-speeds from relatives and friends, the Carnegies left Dunfermline. A small group accompanied them to Charlestown whence they made their way to Glasgow after a long day’s journey by sailing vessel and canal boat. The little family sailed from the Broomielaw of Glasgow in the 800-ton sailing ship Wiscasset to America.

Andrew’s youth progressed, but now in America. His family was not much better off in Pittsburgh, which was where they ended up so like most children his age he got his first real job was that of running messages. Andy worked very hard at this job and in fact wasn’t always even like by the other boys his age that worked there. He was eventually promoted past all the other boys to position of foreman over them. Andrew is eventually elevated to the position of telegraph operator, and then takes a job at the Pennsylvania Railroad doing relatively the same thing. The difference this time is that he is the personal telegrapher and assistant to Thomas Scott, a very high up in the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1856 Carnegie makes a decision that changes his life and puts him on the track to making money. Andrew takes out a loan from a local bank and invests $217.50 in the Woodruff Sleeping Car Company. After about two years he begins receiving a return of around $5000 dollars a year. This is more than three times his salary at the Railroad at the time.[2] Carnegie went on to make other investments, and by 1863 Carnegie’s income is $42,000 a year and only $2,400 of that is from his salary. Everything changes again for Carnegie when around 1872 while on a trip to England he realizes what he thinks is the huge commercial potential of steel in America. In 1875 the Edgar Thomson Works is opened in Pennsylvania, this is Carnegie’s first steel plant.[3] Carnegie then in 1889 publishes The Gospel of Wealth. This was originally just one article known as Wealth, but this article along with other articles and essays ended up being printed under the one title, The Gospel of Wealth, and became a best selling book.[4] This book argued that the wealthy and economically well off people of our society have a moral obligation to server society, one way being philanthropy.[5] From there Carnegie’s life move on as one might expect. He organized more steel companies, on of the main ones being Carnegie Steel, which went on to make annual profits of around 40 million dollars. Then came the move that made him the richest man in the world, “When J.P. Morgan proposed a major merger two years later through Charles M. Schwab, Carnegie immediately accepted, opening the way for the formation of United States Steel Corporation.”[6]

The most important part of Carnegie’s life in his own mind was yet to come. This part that he thought to be the most important was that of his philanthropic work. When it comes to philanthropy and contributing to our society and country he can be most noted for his generous gifts of music halls, educational grants, and nearly 3000 public libraries. By the time of his death in 1919, he had given away over $350 million, which is more the three billion dollars in today’s market.[7]

This was a very short review of the life of the man that my bibliography is focused on. This bibliography is directed mostly at the general overview of Carnegie’s life, his contributions to the steel industry, and his philanthropic contributions. This bibliography will not focus on anyone of these three areas in too much depth, but is best used for researching Carnegie’s life as a whole. If one were to focus one Carnegie’s philanthropy alone, this bibliography might be useful, but not all encompassing. In the same way, if someone were researching the steel industry, this bibliography will be useful, but you will surely need more sources than I provide. But as I said before, for research on Carnegie’s life as a whole, this bibliography will be more than adequate.

Annotated Bibliography

1. Andrew Carnegie, “Wealth”, North American Review 391, June (1889): 1-7.

This article is a Primary source as Andrew Carnegie wrote it. It is an article found at http://alpha.furman.edu/~benson/docs/carnegie.htm or can be obtained through the ILL. This article is key to understanding Carnegie as a man, because in it he spells out his thoughts on wealth and what the people with wealth should do with it. It is a very important document in history and the basis for Carnegie’s life in philanthropy.

2. PBS, Andrew Carnegie, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie.

This website is a must for anyone interested in the life of Carnegie. This site has mostly what one might call general information, but if you are new to studying Carnegie this is a great place to start. The timeline at this site is especially helpful in mapping out the life of Carnegie from start to finish.

3. George Swetnam, Andrew Carnegie Boston: G.K. Hall and Co., 1980.

This book is a secondary history that really lets you in I think better than most on Carnegie as a person outside of the steel industry and philanthropy. I think it gives you a good look at his childhood and his life with his family. This book can be helpful when used with the timeline found on the second source listed. This book can be found at the NWC library.

4. Joseph Frazier Wall, Andrew Carnegie New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.

This is another secondary history source. It is a good source for looking at Carnegie’s whole life, but in particular the part of his life dealing with business ventures he made and also his contributions to the steel industry in America. This book can be found at the NWC library.

5. John Brooks, review of Andrew Carnegie, by Joseph Frazier Wall, New York Times, no. 11 (1970) pg.1.

This source is a book review. This review gives great credit to Wall on his book. Most notably he talks about the access Wall gained in writing his book, and how much information he was able to include that hadn’t been brought out before. This review can be found at the NWC library.

6. Joseph Frazier Wall, “The Rich Man’s Burden and How Andrew Carnegie Unloaded It”, American Heritage 21, no. 6 (1970): 58-67, 90-93.

This is a journal article strictly focused on Carnegie and how and why he gave away millions of dollars in his lifetime. This article gives insight into what may have prompted his giving, and also tells the story of specific things he gave and charities/organizations he gave to. This article can be obtained through ILL.

7. John Kennedy Winkler, Incredible Carnegie, New York: The Vanguard Press, 1931.

This book is another secondary history. It like the other books tells the story of Carnegie’s life. This book I do feel is held back by the fact that it was written and published so soon after Carnegie’s life ended that the full effect of what Carnegie did still wasn’t really known. This book however does outline Carnegie’s life and can be used for that. It can be obtained at NWC library.

8. Murray Godwin, review of Incredible Carnegie; the life of Andrew Carnegie, by John Kennedy Winkler, New Republic, no. 13 (1942), pg. 69.

This review really doesn’t say much for Winkler. He says the book has some interesting facts and is readable, but nothing beyond that. He doesn’t think Winkler did a very good job at presenting a good picture of Carnegie. The review can be found at the NWC library.

9. Eleanor N Wood, “The Story of Steel”, Mankind 5, no. 1 (1975): 17-21, 60-65.

This source is another journal article. The article as the title implies is really on the steel industry as a whole. Obviously Andrew Carnegie played a huge part in that industry which is why this article is well worth looking at when studying the part of Carnegie’s life dedicated to forming the steel industry in America. This article can be obtained through ILL.

10. Tripod.com. History of Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Libraries, http://andrewcarnegie2.tripod.com/historyclp.html

This internet site is great for many reasons. The site itself has very limited information, but provides links to dozens of sites all dedicated to Andrew Carnegie in some form or another, whether your looking for information on his childhood, the steel industry, or his philanthropy there is a link on this site that can help you.

11. Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth. Videocassette. New York: Learning Corporation of America, 1973.

This miscellaneous source is a video that deals with the most noted work of Andrew Carnegie’s life, The Gospel of Wealth. This video discuss the business of that time period in American history and the ethics of Carnegie and his peers in business. This video can be found at NWC in the LRC.

12. Andrew Carnegie, Prince of Steel. Videocassette. New York: A&E Biography, 1995.

This is another miscellaneous source. This video is dedicated to telling the rags to riches story that is Carnegie’s life. It focuses on his late childhood, and how he came from nothing to the richest man in the world, and the man of philanthropy we know. It shows this mostly through telling the story of his impact on the American steel industry. This video can be purchased at www.libraryvideo.com.

13. American National Biography, Volume 4. New York: Oxford Printing Press, 1999. s.v. “Andrew Carnegie.”

This is a reference works source. It is primarily useful in gathering basic information about Andrew Carnegie’s life and his contributions to society in general. It would best be used in accordance with the next source if you were trying to gather the basics of Carnegie’s life. This source can be found at NWC library.

14. The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15^th Ed. Volume 2. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. s.v. “Andrew Carnegie”

This is another reference works source. Like the previous source, this would best be used to gather basic knowledge of Andrew Carnegie. Used along with the previous source a very good general understanding of Carnegie and his works could be gathered. This source can be found at NWC library.

15. David S Patterson, “Andrew Carnegie’s Quest For World Peace,” Pro. Of the Am. Phil. Soc. 114, no. 5 (1970): 371-383.

This is a journal article source. It focuses mainly Carnegie’s obsession with world peace, and how that led him to establish the Carnegie Endowment for World Peace. This source is a little different from the other sources as they focus mainly on Carnegie’s life, the steel industry, and his philanthropy, but this article can still be very useful. It can be obtained through ILL.

16. George Swetnam, “The Carnegie Nobody Knows,” Pennsylvania Hist. 44, no. 2 (1977): 163-172.

This is another journal article source. It focuses on the fact that no one really knows that Carnegie was quite a writer, and that he wrote almost 70 magazine articles. I found this source only to be valuable if you want to know more about Carnegie’s personal life. His writing was overlooked, but the most important works like “Wealth” haven’t been. This article can be obtained through ILL.

17. Andrew Carnegie, “Americanism versus Imperialism”, North American Review 168, January (1899): 1-14.

This is another Primary source, meaning Andrew Carnegie himself wrote it. In this article he attacks America’s policy about going into other countries and says it is imperialistic. This article is helpful in understanding why Carnegie was so active in his fight for world peace. This article can be obtained at http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABQ7578-0168-3.

18. Andrew Carnegie, “The Best Fields For Philanthropy”, North American Review 149, January (1889): 682-699.

This article is another primary source. Andrew Carnegie wrote this article for the specific purpose of telling his rich peers of the world what they should do with their money. This source would be best understood and used after gaining an understanding of Carnegie himself and his beliefs. This source can be found at http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABQ7578-0149-83.

19. Louis Morton Hacker, The World of Andrew Carnegie: 1865-1901, Philidelphia: Lippincott, 1968.

This book is another secondary history source. It is a very advanced book however when dealing with economics. It can be best used when looking at Carnegie’s business and how he ran it, namely his industrial policies. This is a good look at the economics of Carnegie’s life, and can be used well with source number 9, the article entitled “The Story of Steel”. This book can be obtained through ILL.

20. C.J. Pusateri, review of The World of Andrew Carnegie, by Louis Morton Hacker, America, no. 16 (1968), pg. 118.

This review is not a bad one by any means, but Pusateri makes it clear that he believes the book to be a very advanced book in that of economics, and knowledge of the era. He makes it clear that it isn’t for the casual reader. He says that the section on the tactics used by the major players of the day, Carnegie included, was the most “engrossing” section of the book. This review can be found at the NWC library.

Reflection to the Research Process

The research process as a whole is much more difficult than one might think. I started this project with a person from the past in mind, but thinking that it would take much more than going to the library for a couple of hours and looking a few things up. I didn’t understand that to put together a comprehensive annotated bibliography you have to really understand all the sources you are including and really in some cases go out of your way to find these sources. Many of the sources I needed were very difficult to actually find as well.

One of the first difficulties I came across was the difficulty I had in finding book reviews on the secondary history sources I used. For some this may have seemed easier, but I found this to be challenging. The librarian showed me how to find these, but even then, most of the books I used were fairly old and that force me to look pretty far into the past to find some of these reviews. In a few cases I couldn’t even find reviews to go along with the source. For the most part though, I found what I needed despite it taking more time than I expected.

Another difficulty, or more something that I didn’t expect was the knowledge I would have to acquire from each source. To be able to say what you can get out of each source and to be able to tell how you might use that source jointly with another source requires really knowing what the source has to offer. With somewhere around twenty sources, this starts to getting fairly time consuming and taxing to the mind.

One final difficulty I encountered was trying to get different quality sources that each had something different to offer. Instead of four different secondary histories all telling the same story of Carnegie’s life, I wanted four separate focuses of Carnegie’s life. Likewise, for primary sources, I used for different articles written by Carnegie himself, because I thought each one had its own unique a qualities, and subject. In some ways this was the most rewarding part of the research process though, knowing that I put together around twenty sources that all have something to offer and come together to form a well rounded view of Andrew Carnegie’s life.

Overall the research process was a very good learning experience for me, and like I said even rewarding in some ways. I also feel good about the process because I know that my bibliography is going to be posted on the internet for others to use in researching Carnegie.

Reflecting on how my bibliography actually turned, I would say that I feel very proud of the final product. I think that I put together a bibliography that can do exactly what I said it would be able to in my introduction. It can give information on all parts of Carnegie’s life equally, and aid in research on this great man of America’s history.