Carnegie: A Man of Contradiction

Andrew Carnegie was a man of contradiction. Throughout his life his actions and beliefs were often contradictory. A lot of this contradiction had to do with his economic and social philosophy which was that the rich were meant to be rich and the poor were meant to be poor. This was what he believed as an adult and it was how he ran his business empire. However, he had been the poorest of the poor when he was a kid, but then he became the richest man in the world at one point. So Carnegie contradicts himself because he was both poor and rich. Other contradictions were when he treated the poor somewhat equally to the rich, like building libraries where they could learn. However, these contradictions about Carnegie can be explained somewhat by focusing on and understanding some of the contradictory influences that Carnegie had throughout his life.

Carnegie grew up in Dunfermline, Scotland during the industrial revolution. Both his father and his uncle were leaders who pushed fo...