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Round the World
One must traverse the ball round and round to arrive at a broad, liberal, correct estimate of humanity-its work, its aims, its destiny. Go, therefore, my friends-all you who are so situated as to be able to avail yourselves of this privilege-go and see for yourselves how greatly we are bound by prejudices... -from Round the World What a joy! As an adventurous travelogue, it is delightfully entertaining; as a journal of the development of the progressive philosophy of one of America's greatest philanthropists, it is stunning in its insights and its outlook. In October 1878, Andrew Carnegie and his friend John Vandervort set off on a mad cross-continental dash by train from New York to San Francisco to catch a ship sailing to Japan; by the time they ended their voyages around the globe with an uneventful sail home from London in May 1879, Carnegie-as both a businessman and a social benefactor¬-had been profoundly influenced by the cultures he'd explored and peoples he'd met. Originally intended for private circulation and later published in 1884, this is an intimate and provocative work of tremendous historical and cultural value. Also available from Cosimo Carnegie's Triumphant Democracy, An American Four-in-Hand in Britain, and Autobiography. Entrepreneur and philanthropist ANDREW CARNEGIE (1835-1919) was born in Scotland and emigrated to America as a teenager. His Carnegie Steel Company launched the steel industry in Pittsburgh, and after its sale to J.P. Morgan, he devoted his life to philanthropic causes. His charitable organizations built more than 2,500 public libraries around the world, and gave away more than $350 million during his lifetime.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1884
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About the author
Andrew Carnegie
622 books217 followersScottish-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_...
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_...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 9, 2021
This book makes my re-read. It might not be for all, but I am now smitten with Andrew Carnegie writings and philosophy. No, it is not the vast wealth the human accumulated from very humble beginning, but his appreciation of the simplicities when he could have had anything.
This book is his journal and synopsis after a late life world trip he took through the East. A book for any who have or will travel to these parts as a way to gain a snapshot of those cultures from an American perspective in the 1870s.
This book is his journal and synopsis after a late life world trip he took through the East. A book for any who have or will travel to these parts as a way to gain a snapshot of those cultures from an American perspective in the 1870s.
March 21, 2016
Andrew Carnegie and his family emigrated to America from Scotland with nothing but the price of passage when he was thirteen years old, where he went on to make a fortune for himself in rail and steel.
But it is what he did with that money that marked him out. A confirmed bachelor for life, he committed himself to give away what he earnt, becoming the leading philanthropist of his time.
He also had an abiding love of literature, writing a few things himself along the way, about encouraging others to also use their wealth for the common good, about his journeys back to his ancestral home and, in this book, around the world.
Starting out from San Francisco in 1889 and written as a journal, Carnegie comes across as learned and lyrical, ever ready with an appropriate literary quotation, accompanied always with his beloved copy of Shakespeare's plays.
I have read a few of these 19th century travel books by Westerners experiencing the East for the first time now, all of whom were entranced with Japan, with Carnegie being no different:
'No country I have visited so far has proved as strange as I had imagined it; the contrary obtains here.
He highlighted some fascinating insights into Japan's rapid Westernization at that time.
Into China, he is approving of the Mandarins, seeing in them Eastern models for his own republican beliefs of merit and hard work over privilege and inheritance:
'An aristocracy founded upon learning, and composed of those that know the most, is an institution with which we have no serious quarrel. It is claims from birth which make my blood boil.'
In a charming interlude he helps ferry two baby orang-otangs from Singapore to India, where his highest reverence is for the Taj Mahal, but also for the lady it was built for. He says of Noor Mahal:
'I think she must be allowed to rank as the greatest woman who ever reigned, and perhaps who ever lived', placing her above Cleopatra.
His humor is often evident, as with this comment about the cultist Thug stranglers:
'Some Thugs confessed to between seventy and eighty murders, and one to the incredible number of one hundred and ninety-two (what saints they would make!).'
The journey ends with a quick jump from Egypt to Italy and Rome in time for Easter to hear the Pope's choir sing the "Miserere".
His keen eye and respect for all he observed ensured that I enjoyed his company more than that of the majority of his casually chauvinistic peers.
But it is what he did with that money that marked him out. A confirmed bachelor for life, he committed himself to give away what he earnt, becoming the leading philanthropist of his time.
He also had an abiding love of literature, writing a few things himself along the way, about encouraging others to also use their wealth for the common good, about his journeys back to his ancestral home and, in this book, around the world.
Starting out from San Francisco in 1889 and written as a journal, Carnegie comes across as learned and lyrical, ever ready with an appropriate literary quotation, accompanied always with his beloved copy of Shakespeare's plays.
I have read a few of these 19th century travel books by Westerners experiencing the East for the first time now, all of whom were entranced with Japan, with Carnegie being no different:
'No country I have visited so far has proved as strange as I had imagined it; the contrary obtains here.
He highlighted some fascinating insights into Japan's rapid Westernization at that time.
Into China, he is approving of the Mandarins, seeing in them Eastern models for his own republican beliefs of merit and hard work over privilege and inheritance:
'An aristocracy founded upon learning, and composed of those that know the most, is an institution with which we have no serious quarrel. It is claims from birth which make my blood boil.'
In a charming interlude he helps ferry two baby orang-otangs from Singapore to India, where his highest reverence is for the Taj Mahal, but also for the lady it was built for. He says of Noor Mahal:
'I think she must be allowed to rank as the greatest woman who ever reigned, and perhaps who ever lived', placing her above Cleopatra.
His humor is often evident, as with this comment about the cultist Thug stranglers:
'Some Thugs confessed to between seventy and eighty murders, and one to the incredible number of one hundred and ninety-two (what saints they would make!).'
The journey ends with a quick jump from Egypt to Italy and Rome in time for Easter to hear the Pope's choir sing the "Miserere".
His keen eye and respect for all he observed ensured that I enjoyed his company more than that of the majority of his casually chauvinistic peers.
April 22, 2013
Worth recalling what it meant to travel the world before the airplanes, the internet and instantaneous communication, from one of the most well-read men of his time.
March 6, 2015
Excellent view and thoughts and reflections. Definitely worth the read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews