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Example research essay topic: Andrew Carnegie Working Class - 999 words

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... Swetnam says, '... He never explained how a man working eighty-four hours a week at fourteen cents an hour could find 'spare hours' or material for such study' (96). 'The claim that he still thought as a working man was false' (Baker 89). Carnegie amply rewarded his young partners but only after he had squeezed out every bit of their ability to produce. The skilled laborers, of English, Irish, and Scottish descent, were valued and rewarded, but he had no respect for the easily replaced immigrant laborers from Southeast Europe. 'Despite his claims of noblesse oblige he was not a friend of the working poor' (Baker 89). Meltzer scathingly attacks Carnegie as being a hypocrite, 'In his autobiography, written long after, [Homestead] Carnegie wrote: 'nothing I have ever had to meet in all my life, before or since, wounds me so deeply.

No pangs remain of any wounds received in my business career save that of Homestead. It was so unnecessary. ' [deaths and destruction]. Meltzer goes on to say that Carnegie continues 'on to give a mostly inaccurate account of what happened at Homestead. It is full of distortions, falsehoods, and omissions' (104). Carnegie retired from business after the Homestead strike to his castle in Scotland. He sold all his holdings and instigated a process to bestow his money.

He believed that children of the rich should not inherit large estates. He believed that wealth should be disbursed during the lifetime of the possessor. His early life experiences convinced him that education was one of the most influential means to help mankind. Subsequently, he established libraries in America and Britain. Money was used to build cultural and research centers. The PBS Documentary: American Experience explained, Carnegie then turned his enormous energies to philanthropy and the pursuit of world peace, hoping perhaps that donating his wealth to charitable causes would mitigate the grimy details of its accumulation.

In the public memory, he may have been correct. Today he is most remembered 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 (more than $ 3 billion in 1996 dollars) ' ' (Meet Andrew Carnegie: The Two Andrews). Our school children have learned from many sources of the large amounts of money Carnegie donated for all his projects, and he has been held up to them as an example of the 'rags to riches' dream. Many believe that Carnegie does not deserve his reputation as a great man and have questioned his character. Swogger questions if we have the right to deify the rich and the famous.

Shouldn't we also be teaching our children about the many faults and failures of these public icons? Swogger, says, 'This proclivity to virtually deify historical figures is natural but is very dangerous -- such elevation also tends to forgive or even justify the sins of such individuals, regardless of how terrible those sins may have been' (1). The dichotomy of Carnegie's words and actions has brought a great deal of disparagement to the analysis of his character. How could this man from a poor working class background have forgotten his roots? Did the accumulation of riches blur his mind and conscience to the methods he used obtaining his wealth? What were his drives and motivations?

Carnegie wrote in his memos a description of how he wanted his life to evolve. Already, in 1868, at a very early age of 33, his income had reached $ 50, 000 per year. He outlined his goal of going to Oxford to get an education and to meet literary men. He would buy a newspaper in London and work for the education and improvement of the working class. But the most telling of his remarks was 'man must have an idol-the amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry. No idol is more debasing than the worship of money' (American Experience; The Wrong Career Path? ).

Carnegie wrote books, essays, and articles for the news media of the day. This allowed him to express his opinions on many subjects including 'Capitol and Labor', and his Philanthropic Philosophy. Swetnam believes that Carnegie's writing ability equaled his ability to amass wealth. He says, 'Even on its merits alone, Carnegie's writing is worthy of a wider attention and acceptance than is accorded today.

His style is crisp and attractive... was far better than the average American writing of its period... he helped to frame and promote the American dream' (Foreword). Baker has many thoughts on 'what made Andy run?' . Carnegie was a small boy and later a short man who strived to compete to compensate for being an immigrant, for being the son of a father deemed a failure, and for being in competition for his mother's love (24)... the ultimate source of Carnegie's consuming ambition remains elusive.

Ultimately human behavior results from the way in which an individual accommodates himself to the contradictions and ambiguities with in himself and his society... Andrew Carnegie had a personal set of paradoxes. The best his biographers can do is to designate the pressures and document the response... In himself Carnegie knew kindness and cruelty, vanity and shame, generosity and greed, doubt and confidence (Baker 27).

Carnegie cannot be understood even with reading all of his writings. He came from a very poor childhood, worked in sweat factories, and yet in his later life, these memories were obliterated by his powerful drive for power and wealth. Swetnam believes that, 'Carnegie developed a philosophy of his own. It was made up of his early religious and political training, rugged individualism, desire for mastery and achievement, greed, generosity, and a conviction that the world-and especially those close to him-needed his ideas and guidance.

No small element was his struggle of conscience over having indulged in what in 1868 he had alluded to as the 'worship of the golden calf'' (67).


Free research essays on topics related to: working class, carnegie, baker, american experience, andrew carnegie

Research essay sample on Andrew Carnegie Working Class

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