Includes bibliographical references (p. [842]-850) and index.

"Andrew Carnegie, whose lifetime spanned the era from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to the First World War, was America's first modern titan. In his biography, celebrated historian David Nasaw brings to life this period of unprecedented transition - a time of self-made millionaires, scabs, strikes, and a new kind of philanthropy - through the fascinating rags-to-riches story of one of our most iconic business legends." "The Scottish-born son of a failed weaver and a mother who supported the family by binding shoes, Andrew Carnegie is the embodiment of the American dream. After emigrating to America with his family, this smart and eager lad rose from his job as a bobbin boy in a Pittsburgh cotton factory to become a telegraph messenger, Pennsylvania Railroad employee, bridge builder, bond trader, iron and steel maker, and, eventually, the richest man in the world. In this climb to power and in the accumulation of his fortune he was single-minded and relentless and a major player in some of the most violent and notorious labor strikes of the time. The prototype of today's billionaire, he was a visionary in the way that he earned his money and in the way that he gave it away. Upon his retirement, he dedicated himself to giving away every penny of the wealth he had amassed and to crusading for international peace." "Nasaw explains how Carnegie made his early fortune and what prompted him to give it all away, how Carnegie became obsessively consumed with his prescient predictions of world war, and how he masterly politicked with presidents and prime ministers to try to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. With a trove of new material - unpublished chapters of Carnegie's Autobiography, personal letters between Carnegie and his future wife, his prenuptial agreement, diaries of family members and close friends, and private letters to and from presidents Grant, Cleveland, McKinley, and Roosevelt, and British prime ministers Gladstone and Balfour, as well as Henry Clay Frick, Herbert Spencer, Matthew Arnold, and Mark Twain - Nasaw plumbs the core of this fascinating and complex man, at last fixing him in his rightful place as one of the most compelling, elusive, and multifaceted personalities of the twentieth century."--BOOK JACKET.