Jumia Books The Gospel of Wealth Book by Andrew Carnegie (Author)

The Gospel of Wealth Book by Andrew Carnegie (Author)

He followed his motto, which he set out in The Gospel of Wealth, “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced,” through to his end.

Born in Scotland, to a poor weaving household, he emigrated to the United States of America with his family when he was thirteen.

Through the course of the next fifty years he rose through the ranks of employment and invested widely until in 1901 he sold his Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Steel Company to J. P. Morgan for $480 million and became the richest American alive for a couple of years.

Carnegie explains his remarkable early years and how he made his first investments in his initial essay, How I served my apprenticeship. He gives remarkable insight into his ability to see potentially lucrative opportunities, even at a young age.

The main focus of this collection of essays is however on The Gospel of Wealth, in which Carnegie outlines his philosophy of philanthropy. He was aware that the United States in the late nineteenth century had produced a great number of self-made super-rich industrialists, like himself, and was concerned that they would waste their new found wealth through extravagance and instead urges everyone to think of and assist those less fortunate than ourselves.