Title: What was a positive contribution of Andrew Carnegie? - eNotes.com
Headings: What was a positive contribution of Andrew Carnegie?
Industrialization and Captains of Industry
What was a positive contribution of Andrew Carnegie?
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Content: He also founded the technology school that eventually became Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and he funded foundations for advancements in teaching and international peace. Carnegie wrote The Gospel of Wealth, which espoused his philosophy of how the wealthy can best put their money to use in helping others who have been less successful. Approved by eNotes Editorial Team
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Andrew Carnegie was a multimillionaire steel magnate and a remorseless competitor as a businessman, but he was also a philanthropist who believed that the very wealthy should use their wealth for the benefit of society as a whole. In what he called the "Gospel of Wealth," he argued that the wealthy should, during their lives, administer their wealth in such a way as to benefit society as a whole. Carnegie was self-educated and attributed much of his success to the ability to borrow books from a benefactor in his youth. As a result, much of Carnegie's wealth went to establishing hundreds of public lending libraries around the nation. This, he thought, would allow ambitious, bright people of any social class to educate themselves as he had. Carnegie also donated millions to universities, organizations to promote world peace (he was an anti-imperialist), and financed the construction of Carnegie Hall, a world-renowned center for the performing arts in New York City. So his philanthropic efforts certainly qualify as a positive contribution to society. Further Reading
https://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/rbannis1/AIH19th/Carneg...
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