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Was Andrew Carnegie a Hero?

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Was Andrew Carnegie a Hero?
Was Andrew Carnegie a Hero?

Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthiest United States businessmen of the nineteenth century, an entrepreneur, and a philanthropist. After many years of thoughtful planning and hard work, Carnegie Steel Company was a dominant force in the steel industry. Also, it just so happened to be a large part of shaping the United States of America into what it is today. Mr.Carnegie’s legacy, business, and actions were all very controversial. However, due to the fact that Mr.Carnegie donated millions of dollars to universities, corporations, the building of free public libraries, and was a huge part of America’s history, Andrew Carnegie was a hero. In the early twentieth century, Andrew Carnegie was one of the most influential philanthropists in U.S. history. In 1901, he sold Carnegie Steel Company to J.P. Morgan, a financier, for over two hundred million dollars. At this time, Carnegie was at the age of sixty-five and was ready to spend his time and money helping others. As a philanthropist, Carnegie funded the building of 2,811 free public libraries, many which were in the U.S., spending a total of five hundred three hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars on this project (document 9). He donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to places such as Princeton University, the Carnegie Peace Endowment, and the Homestead relief fund, a fund for steel workers and families. The foundation of the Carnegie Corporation is still giving around $100,000,000 every year, the majority of it going to education. It is a fact that Andrew Carnegie was the primary reason as to why the United States of America became a world power in the steel industry. Carnegie originally lived in an attic above his father’s weaver’s shop in Dunfermline, Scotland with his three other family members (document 1). In 1848, as an early teen, Carnegie and his family moved to America. They settled in Pennsylvania, Allegheny to be exact, and Andrew earned $1.20 each week,

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