Andrew Carnegie

David Nasaw

Peguin Books

2007

896 páginas

1d 5h 52m

ISBN-10: B000XCQ4A0

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 With a trove of new material—unpublished chapters of Carnegie's Autobiography; personal letters between Carnegie and his future wife, Louise, and other family members; his prenuptial agreement;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.

Resenhas (1)

5 (Perfeito)

A biografia mais completa e ampla que já 'ouvi'

Sim, não li, mas ouvi no carro de casa para o trabalho...

Sempre ouvimos sobre Andrew Carnegie, John Davison Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt ou John Pierpont Morgan como ‘Robber Rabons’ (barões ladrões). ‘Capitalistas’ que exploraram seus empregados, criaram competição brutal contra adversários, infringiram leis, montaram esquemas corruptos com políticos, derrubaram governos e ficaram desproporcionalmente ricos. Sim, alguns deles fizeram parte disso e outros tudo isso e mais um pouco.

O interessante é tentar entender que mundo era aquele. E talvez verificar que não era um mundo tão diferente do nosso. Eram eles os ‘bad guys’, ou simplesmente jogavam o mesmo jogo que todos jogavam melhor que os demais?

As ações filantrópicas foram genuínas? Uma forma de compensar suas ações no processo de crescimento e expansão? Estavam envolvidos em conspirações globais? Fizeram pactos com o Diabo? Ou simplesmente eram as pessoas ‘certas’ no lugar e hora ‘certos’? Tinham família e como os tratavam? Como eram suas férias e tempos de lazer?

Enfim, há uma série de perguntas. Esse livro responde boa parte dessas para o Andrew Carnegie, ou para os íntimos, Andy.

Não é de 'leitura' tão fácil, mas vale a pena. Há duas opções: 900 páginas ou áudio original com 30 horas. Ambos em inglês. Como ouvi em 70% da velocidade, foram 40 horas sobre Andy. Muita coisa. 'Nonetheless', vale o esforço para aqueles que já possuem uma base mais sólida da língua.