Andrew Carnegie Biography

The life of Andrew Carnegie is a good example of a real "rags to riches" story. He was born to a poor Scottish family that immigrated to the United States. Later, Carnegie became a powerful businessman and a leading force in the American steel industry. Now, he is remembered as an industrialist, millionaire, and philanthropist. With Carnegie’s creed that the wealthy population had an unwritten obligation to give back to society, much of his fortune was donated to causes concerning peace and education.

In 1848, the Carnagie family father immigrated to America, where they settled in Pennsylvania. His father worked as a jobbing hand loom weaver, which forced him to work long hours with minimal pay. At the age of thirteen, Andrew Carnegie found work in the same building as a "Bobbin boy" with a salary of $1.20 per week. Three years after arriving in America, the he began writing about the great virtues of American democracy while criticising feudal British institutions. At the same time, he followed in his father's footsteps and wrote letters to newspapers including the New York Tribune on subjects like slavery or British government.

Carnegie