A History of US 1880-1917 Part 1

        While I am in Arizona I am reading a book series called A History of US by Joy Hakim for my history. I brought along two books, the first, An Age of Extremes, is set from 1880 - 1917 and the second, War, Peace, and All That Jazz is 1918 - 1945. Everyone once in awhile I will be posting updates on what I have read from these books.

          The first few chapters of this book were about men who found ways to use the changing ways of America to their benefit and great profit. A well known early American businessman was Andrew Carnegie. Young Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland, his father was a weaver who was out of a job and his mother was the practical one keeping the family together. It was she who decided that the Carnegie family should pack up and move to America. This decision was a very good one for Andrew Carnegie's welfare. He worked his way up job by job, promotion by promotion and pay raise by pay raise. When he was 33, Andrew Carnegie was a very rich man and he wrote a note that promised himself that he would work for two more years and then help other people. Sadly, it would seem that Andrew Carnegie forgot about that little note, he had become the king of the steel industry and showed no signs of stepping down. Carnegie was making millions, and his workers were living in the slums, they had very poor working conditions and many were injured on the job and left to take care of themselves without any help from the company. The workers of Carnegie's steel factories started to go on strike, very much like Andrew Carnegie's father had done. But that did very little to phase the great Andrew Carnegie, he was on a vacation in Scotland. Then, one fateful day in 1901 a very wealthy banker named J. Pierpont Morgan offered to buy out Carnegie's company. With the money from Morgan, Andrew Carnegie would become the richest man in the world. Maybe it was that prospect that made him take the deal, or maybe it was that little note he had written to himself years before that reminded him to help other people who were less fortunate than him. Whatever the cause, Andrew Carnegie drastically changed his lifestyle. He started donating money wherever he could. By the time he died, Andrew Carnegie had donated $324,657,399. When he learned of that number he is reported to have said, "Good heavens! Where did I get all that money?"

That was just one of the people I read about, so I will continue to post updates on as many people as I can.