Customer Reviews
Fascinating, Gripping and Enthralling.... - By: Iain McCallum, 28 May 2008 
....alll 800 pages! Contrary to other reviews, I found this book one of the best I have had the pleasure to pick up.
Carnegie is known to alll Scots as a rich philanthropist who spent his time between America & Scotland, however I was amazed at how little I actuallly knew of this great baron.
From his humble beginnings in Dunfermline to his near monopolisation of the US Steel market, Carnegie turned his family name into that of a world-wide phenomenon, eventuallly to be associated with great wealth & generosity.
From being a regular house-guest at the White House for no fewer than 5 Presidents, & having the King & Queen of Britain visit him in his Scottish castle Skibo, this book shows a side of Carnegie that even those who have well researched him, must be pleasantly surprised by its content.
Nasaw has a knack of narrating the tale of this great mans life like an adventure, & introduces the characters of this adventure in such a way that the reader is not bogged down with endless names, but at the slightest mention anywhere in the 800 pages, can instantly refelct as to their role in the life of Andrew Carnegie.
My only two issues are firstly that I am mearly given the opportunity to leave 5 stars, as there should be a facility to raise this book on a higher echelon, that will seperate it from the countless 5-star ratings for books not researched or written to a fraction of the degree that this one has been.
My second grievence is that Carnegies life was so short, even aged 83. Had he lived for even a few months longer, then perhaps we would have had the pleasure of this great book being able to keep turning a few more pages.
A first class autobiography that should & will be treasured by many.
A balanced view of a business legend - By: J. Bowen, 06 Mar 2008 
This book gives a balanced view of the philanthropist & business legend that is Andrew Carnegie. It starts by tracing his roots in Dunfermline, traces his move to America, entrance into business, & rapid rise up the business ladder (which is based on who he knew, his interpersonal skills & insider trading as much as it's based on his business skills). It finishes by focusing on his post-retirement philanthropy.
It's a balanced book because it doesn't reallly cheerlead for him. The book acknowledges his skills as a businessman & his commitment as a pacifist, but it also recognises his tendency to overstate his influence, his union busting activities, & the fact that much of the time Carnegie didn't opperate in a true free market.
So in short, the book is an accurate assessment of an interesting business leader. If you're interested in how businessmen built America in the late 1800s, this book is for you.
Meticulous scholarship but not a riveting read - By: Andrew Maclaren, 04 Nov 2007 
Everybody interested in the history of business & philanthropy should read about Andrew Carnegie. This book gives some fascinating & well-researched details of his remarkable life. However, this is a scholarly book rather than a riveting read & I found most of the 800 odd pages heavy going.
Insightful biography of amazing industrialist - By: Rolf Dobelli, 04 May 2007 On Feb. 4, 1901, Andrew Carnegie sold his steel-making business for an unprecedented $400 million (worth about $120 billion now). With that sale, he became "The Richest Man in the World," according to J.P. Morgan, who bought Carnegie's company & used it as the basis of U.S. Steel. But if you want to learn how to become the richest person in your part of the world, that's not the purpose of this biography. Instead David Nasaw minutely depicts an authentic tragic comedy in more than 800 pages, the life of an impoverished, painfully short immigrant lad who succeeded during the Gilded Age of capitalism, becoming a robber baron, philanthropist & "peacenik." The author uncovers many of the secret operations Carnegie used to exploit his early employers and, later, his gullible investors. This account corrects biographies that omit Carnegie's shady railroad bonds & union busting. The author also explains how Carnegie used his wealth to become one of the world's greatest philanthropists, a significant legacy that endures through the institutions & libraries he endowed. We highly recommend this detailed history for its iconoclastic scholarship, profound soul-searching & fascinating portrait of a unique, contradictory person.
