Andrew Carnegie Robber Baron Analysis

As industry began to grow in America, a select group of pioneers such as Andrew Carnegie became controversial. The controversy was that they were simply rich and took from the poor. People who participated in such acts were referred to as “Robber Barons”. It is often said that Andrew Carnegie was a “Robber Baron” but he was not because in his case, he was one of the first people to bring industry to such a large scale. Without people before him, he had no guidance and therefore it was much harder to conduct business because he was essentially creating his own path.

The book “ANDREW CARNEGIE and the Rise of Big Business” written by Harold C. Libesay, explains Andrew Carnegies life with chronological events beginning how he and his family moved from Dumferline, Scotland in November of 1835. This books thesis is on how his skills and experienced he learned before starting Carnegie Steel intersect with each other and show how he dominated the steel industry. Carnegie’s industrial career is explained in depth how he acquired the knowledge on how businesses worked, as a manager capitalist then leading into a entrepreneur. The authors purpose I believe was to show not only Carnegies life leading to just Carnegie Steel, but also how determination and hard work can help you achieve success. This book on Andrew Carnegie explains well on in detail how Carnegie’s came to create his dominating steel industry empire.

The objective of this research is to evaluate their collective role in the growth of the United States economy after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln following the American Civil War. The investigation will also analyze the economic state of the United States before Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and John Pierpont Morgan introduced their ideas and their investments, as well as the impact of their actions on other people and materials for their businesses. The investigation will also describe how the “Robber Barons” built their industries and amassed their respective fortunes. Cornelius Vanderbilt was also known as “The Commodore”. At sixteen years old, Vanderbilt bought a “periauger” with a loan of

John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were not captains of industry, they were robber barons. They treated their workers as machines and would do anything to get rich. Carnegie ran his company without any concerns pertaining to his workers. They worked long hours with very low wages and high risk of injury. Their work days were often 12 to 14 hours, for which they earned about ten dollars a week.

Andrew Carnegie is a steel plant owner who claims to support unions and the working man. His charge is that he ignored the legitimate grievances of his employees at his plant in Homestead Pennsylvania and that his neglect contributed to the death of several of his employees during a strike at Homestead in June of 1892 and that he should be held accountable. Andrew Carnegie has dealt with strikes at his plants before. One strike was at his plant in Braddock Pennsylvania where he settled with the workers by agreeing to higher pay but without input from the Union, essentially ruining it. The union at Homestead was one of the last unions in any of his plants.

Just like the treatment his workers endured Carnegie wasn't any nicer to his competitors. Andrew Carnegie was a phenomenal businessman. Much of his success is due to how he operated his business. He watched the costs of his business intently (Document C), always making sure that the steel was being produced at a lower price than what it was being sold for (Document D), and he watched his competitors even closer. In March 1889, when Allegheny Bessemer Steel built a mill directly across from Carnegie's mill it intimidated Carnegie.

Andrew Carnegie is a Robber Barron because he sold monopoly to JP Morgan the most famous business man. The monopoly prices raised and it was ruthless tactics. Andrew Carnegie also stole the idea of the bessemer process. He also payed Irish men $850 to take his place in the civil war.

In the year of 1852, the industrious skill and dedication of a young twelve-year-old boy named Andrew Carnegie captivated Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad. 1 Awed by his diligence, Scott immediately hired and made Carnegie his personal telegrapher.2 With a “rags to riches” background that inspired others to work hard for the American Dream, Carnegie knew exactly how the less fortunate felt when they were compared to the wealthy. Noticing how society achieved social, economic, and political equality before industrialization, Carnegie shared his intake on America’s momentous shift from an agrarian society to an industrial society in the late

Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant, industrialist, and philanthropist, amassed one of the largest fortunes in history, and revolutionized the American steel industry. Carnegie incorporated the Bessemer Process to manufacture steel while, utilizing vertical integration, and monopolization to establish his position in the global steel market. However, to create his steel empire Carnegie mistreated his workers, by providing them low salaries and long hours. Some say that Carnegie’s maltreatment of workers diminished his accomplishments, but his achievements in the steel industry and his philanthropism place him as one of the most successful Americans in history. Andrew Carnegie, was born November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, Scotland, son of

This show us that Carnegie had withheld money from his employers who were the ones doing all the hard work. Jobs at Carnegie company exhausted workers because of their 10 hour shifts that consisted of hot machinery and the smell of gas. This also lead to some deaths.(Doc 6) Even though workers worked long, hard, and tiring shifts, Carnegie only cared for the income and not the working conditions. Since Andrew Carnegie gave low wages and did not care for bad

In Document H, when Hamlin Garland, a journalist, visited the Homestead steel mill, the journalist said that everywhere in the mill felt like the mouth of hell. Hamlin saw grimy men with sallow and lean faces everywhere and when Hamlin asked one of the workers how their job is, they replied that they work twelve hours a day and mostly receive between $1.40 and $2.25 a day and rarely $5/$10 a day. There was also a machine known as deathtrap that kills workers occasionally. With Carnegie being so rich, he could’ve paid his workers more. Additionally, in Document O, Andrew Carnegie reduces the worker's pay wage by 20% in order to donate more money for his own selfish needs.

Andrew Carnegie pushed his employees to work long, exhausting hours and put his support behind the plant manager Henry Frick who treated his workers atrociously. Henry even locked out workers and also hired pinkerton thugs to intimidate strikers. The working conditions in Carnegie's mill were so dangerous that twenty percent of deaths in Pittsburgh during the 1880’s were because of steelwork accidents. Andrew Carnegie did not play when it came to his wage. At one point, Carnegie lowered his wage by thirty percent which lead to a strike.

Carnegie was considered a Robber Baron for many reasons. For example, he gained huge profits because of his workers low wages. In the excerpt, “Who was Andrew Carnegie,” the author said, “his steel workers were often pushed to long hours and low wages.” Workers worked in harsh conditions and received no benefits causing them to live in poverty with scarce food, clothing, and shelter. Workers were tired of the low wages and decided to go on strike.

Knowing there was competition Andrew Carnegie could be trying to get rid of his “friend” because it would be less competition he would have to worry about. In brief summary Carnegie was not a hero because of how badly he treated his employees who worked nonstop for him. He was selfish for wanting to be recognized for his work only because he did not want to be disgraced when he died. To stay successful and be on top he did what he could do to kick his competition out of business. If Andrew Carnegie was really a hero he would not hurt people, instead he would try to help them.

Amongst the urbanization and technological advances during the Industrial Revolution emerged the titans of the industry. Fronting some of these major corporations were business leaders John D. Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan, who were most notable for the immoral practices and ruthless tactics they used to gain their wealth. On the contrary, philanthropist Andrew Carnegie headed the U.S. Steel Corporation, where he earned his millions through truthful and legal methods, making both viewpoints on business leaders valid. Through criminal and morally questionable schemes, the oil industry’s tycoon Rockefeller and financer J.P. Morgan corruptly made themselves a fortune, earning the label as “greedy and unscrupulous”, but not all industry leaders