Andrew Carnegie: The Richest Man in the World

Andrew Carnegie's life seemed touched by magic. He embodied the American dream: the immigrant who went from rags to riches, the self-made man who became a captain of industry, the king of steel. "Carnegie was more than most people," says Owen Dudley Edwards, historian at the University of Edinburgh. "Not only more wealthy, not only more optimistic, Carnegie is still, right throughout his life, the little boy in the fairy story, for whom everything has to be all right." Fond of saying "The man who dies rich, dies disgraced," Carnegie amassed a fortune, then gave it away. Millions of dollars went to support education, a pension plan for teachers, and the cause of world peace. Most famous as a benefactor of libraries, he funded nearly 3000 around the world. He preached the obligation of the wealthy to return their money to the societies where they made it -- then added, says Carnegie's biographer, Joseph Frazier Wall, "a very revealing sentence. He wrote, 'and besides, it provides a refuge from self-questioning.'" The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie, produced by Austin Hoyt and narrated by David Ogden Stiers, follows Carnegie's life from his impoverished origins in Dunfermline, Scotland, through his business career where he was on the cutting edge of the industrial revolution in telegraphy, railroads, and finally, steel. The Richest Man in the World traces the roots of Carnegie's philanthrophy to his idealistic, egalitarian father, a skilled weaver displaced by the <b>...</b>
Author: MrRobinTroyer
Duration: 116:07



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Andrew Carnegie: The Richest Man in the World