Meet Andrew Carnegie: The Gospel of Wealth

The free library

A Pittsburgh gentleman opened his private library to working boys on Saturdays; a twelve-year-old Scottish immigrant named Carnegie never forgot it. Fifty years later, having systematized steel and sold out to Morgan for the largest personal transaction in history, he repaid the debt 2,500 times over.

The stain and the standard

His record carries Homestead — the 1892 strike where his company's private army fired on its own workers. He knew it shadowed everything. His Gospel of Wealth remains the standard he set anyway: a fortune is a trust; the man who dies rich dies disgraced. He nearly met his own bar.

Why they belong at your table

Seat him for the second half of ambition — when earning must turn into meaning. He'll ask what your surplus is for.