Synopses & Reviews
Majestically told and based on materials not available to any previous biographer, the definitive life of Andrew Carnegie one of American business's most iconic and elusive titans by the bestselling author of
The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst.
Celebrated historian David Nasaw, whom the New York Times Book Review has called "a meticulous researcher and a cool analyst," brings new life to the story of one of America's most famous and successful businessmen and philanthropists in what will prove to be the biography of the season.
Born of modest origins in Scotland in 1835, Andrew Carnegie is best known as the founder of Carnegie Steel. His rags to riches story has never been told as dramatically and vividly as in Nasaw's new biography. Carnegie, the son of an impoverished linen weaver, moved to Pittsburgh at the age of thirteen. The embodiment of the American dream, he pulled himself up from bobbin boy in a cotton factory to become the richest man in the world. He spent the rest of his life giving away the fortune he had accumulated and crusading for international peace. For all that he accomplished and came to represent to the American public a wildly successful businessman and capitalist, a self-educated writer, peace activist, philanthropist, man of letters, lover of culture, and unabashed enthusiast for American democracy and capitalism Carnegie has remained, to this day, an enigma.
Nasaw explains how Carnegie made his early fortune and what prompted him to give it all away, how he was drawn into the campaign first against American involvement in the Spanish-American War and then for international peace, and how he used his friendships with presidents and prime ministers to try to pull the world back from the brink of disaster.
With a trove of new material unpublished chapters of Carnegie's Autobiography; personal letters between Carnegie and his future wife, Louise, and other family members; his prenuptial agreement; diaries of family and close friends; his applications for citizenship; his extensive correspondence with Henry Clay Frick; and dozens of private letters to and from presidents Grant, Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt, and British prime ministers Gladstone and Balfour, as well as friends Herbert Spencer, Matthew Arnold, and Mark Twain Nasaw brilliantly plumbs the core of this facinating and complex man, deftly placing his life in cultural and political context as only a master storyteller can.
Review
"[A] grand biography....[O]verstuffed and very well-written....Nasaw does brilliant work in bringing the man to life." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Mr. Nasaw tells this tale extremely well. Highly readable despite its length, Andrew Carnegie shows signs of prodigious original research on almost every page....I expect it will be the definitive work on Carnegie for the foreseeable future, and it fully deserves to be." John Steele Gordon, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"[G]enerally compelling. Ultimately, Nasaw cannot fully explain the man's contradictions, but this is a worthy attempt and an important examination of the man and his times." Booklist
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"Nasaw competently builds a credible narrative arc that illustrates the cultural and political forces that shaped Carnegie's life and times." Denver Post
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"Mr. Nasaw's book is beautifully crafted and fun to read. What it does especially well is to put you inside Carnegie's mind and help you see America as he did." The Wall Street Journal
Review
"Coming in at 801 pages, the book just may be too long. It also could be that a biography of a man whose life was focused on remorseless execution of business principles lacks the natural drama of books about warriors or statesmen." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Review
"[C]onsistently readable....Nasaw's fine book incorporates what's best in these and other books about Carnegie and his times so fully that it seems sure to be the final word on 'the Star-spangled Scotchman.'" Los Angeles Times
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"Nasaw's research is extraordinary, drawing on everything from family letters to private business memos. Nasaw falls short, however, by packing these details into a disappointingly bland analytical framework." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"[T]his massive biography...contains many passages of astute analysis and perceptive character study but is simply too long. Granted, an epic life demands epic treatment, but Nasaw is not as selective as he should have been." Newsday
Review
"The great strength of this immense biography is the way in which David Nasaw causes these tributaries capitalism, radicalism, and educational aspiration to converge like the three rivers (the Allegheny, the Ohio, and the Monongahela) whose confluence makes the site of Pittsburgh possible." Christopher Hitchens, The Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic Monthly review)
Synopsis
A National Book Critics Circle Award-nominated biographer chronicles the life of the iconic business titan from his modest upbringing in mid-1800s Scotland through his rise to one of the world's richest men, offering insight into his work as a peace advocate and his motivations for giving away most of his fortune. 120,000 first printing.
Synopsis
Celebrated historian David Nasaw (The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst) brings new life to the story of one of America's most famous and successful businessmen and philanthropists. Using materials not available to any previous biographer, Nasaw brilliantly plumbs the core of this fascinating and complex man, deftly placing his life in cultural and political context as only a master storyteller can.
Synopsis
In this magnificent biography, celebrated historian David Nasaw brings to life the fascinating rags- to-riches story of one of our most iconic business legends-Andrew Carnegie, America's first modern titan. From his first job as a bobbin boy at age thirteen to his status as the richest man in the world upon retirement, Carnegie was the embodiment of the American dream and the prototype of today's billionaire. Drawing on a trove of new material, Nasaw brilliantly plumbs the core of this fascinating and complex man, at last fixing him in his rightful place as one of the most compelling, elusive, and multifaceted personalities of the twentieth century.
About the Author
David Nasaw is the author of the nationally bestselling biography The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst, winner of the Bancroft Prize for History, the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Ambassador Book Prize for Biography, and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is currently a distinguished professor of history and Director for the Humanities at the City University of New York Graduate Center.