The Gospel of Wealth: And Other Timely Essays

by Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He was also one of the highest profile philanthropists of his era; his 1889 book proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth" called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy.As early as 1868, at age 33, he drafted a memo to himself. He wrote: "...The amassing of wealth is one of the worse species of idolatry. No idol more debasing than the worship of money." In order to avoid degrading himself, he wrote in the same memo he would retire at age 35 to pursue the practice of philanthropic giving for "...the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced." However, he did not begin his philanthropic work in all earnest until 1881, with the gift of a library to his hometown of Dunfermline, Scotland.

Carnegie wrote "The Gospel of Wealth", an book in which he stated his belief that the rich should use their wealth to help enrich society.

(this pre-1923 publication has been converted from its original format and may contain an occasional defect from the conversion process or from the original publication)

48 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 16, 1901

About the author

Scottish-born American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie amassed a fortune in the steel industry and donated millions of dollars for the benefit of the public.

He led the enormous expansion in the late 19th century. He built a leadership role for the British Empire. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away $350 million (in 2011, $225 billion), almost nine-tenths, to charities, foundations, and universities. His article, proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth," in 1889 called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and it stimulated a wave.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_...

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Carnegie believed that to die with wealth was to die disgraced. I picked this book up to read his own words on philanthropy. He was a fascinating guy.

A few take-aways:
1: Generosity should be done in a way that benefits the receiver long-term, not short term. Give knowledge and means to self-accomplishment, not handouts.
2: Accumulated wealth should be looked at as a stewardship or trust. It is the responsibility of the holder to find worthy uses for the money and make sure it is given back to the community from which it came.
3: Those who are born poor have a great advantage over those who receive everything on a silver platter, because they are likely to understand and develop a strong work ethic and become great men who know that their accomplishments are their own.

There are other views in the book that are interesting as a means of understanding his perspective, regardless of whether you agree with him or not. He believed, for example, that imbalance of wealth is a good thing, because those who don't have money aren't responsible enough to correctly manage it.

All in all, it was a good read. It certainly gave me a few things to think about.

If anyone is interested, you can read the book online. I only read his intro and the first two essays.

[Kurt Rocourt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of two halves

The title will fool you. The book is mostly made up mostly of the timely essays mentioned in the title. The Gospel of Wealth portion is the first part of the book. If that’s all that you want to read then keep in mind that the rest of the book is about U.S. and British relations. If that doesn’t interest you than keep in mind what is in the book. The Gospel of Wealth portion is very smart and useful, the rest I didn’t care for since it has no relevance to me.

[Luke Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

not to be confused with the prosperity gospel

[Raul Ricardo Gomez Zamudio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Carnegie history open the mind of many hidden talents in the shadow that can learn how to become great; definitely, this book is an example and good guide that everything is possible.

[Ermal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book likely contains some opinions that the average person may not resonate with, which is exactly why Andrew Carnegie became the remarkable figure we know him as. Mr. Carnegie offers truly eye-opening insights in areas I had never considered before. Here are a few points that particularly fascinated me:
• Leaving your wealth to your children can actually harm them and creates little to no value for the world.
• Every wealthy person should aim to die broke, by giving their wealth back to the community in ways that provide real benefit (e.g., libraries, parks, etc.).
• A difficult childhood or life is a blessing, as it builds strength of character.
• The law of competition and capitalism, while harsh, ultimately benefits the middle and lower classes, allowing them to live lives that kings of the past could only dream of.

Mr. Carnegie follows a paradoxical but brilliant approach: instead of directly pursuing certain goals (like building family wealth by passing it on), he uses seemingly “strange” or counterintuitive methods to actually achieve deeper, long-term success.

God bless you all!

[Datheft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, but you won’t be missing much if you don’t read it, I just read books sometimes that I don’t want to read or where the flow is not the same to easier type books.