Andrew Carnegie can be considered a double-edged sword. One side of the blade would show Carnegie as the ideal example of a poor immigrant who works his way to become an incredibly successful businessman who would one day give almost his entire fortune to help society improve. The flip side of the blade would show Carnegie as a ruthless businessman who would cut his employees' wages, sink other businesses, and use corruption to become the leader of the capitalist world. These views of Carnegie have changed over the years. Early accounts of Carnegie portray him as the ruthless conqueror of the steel industry while other later works tend to show both sides of Carnegie emphasizing that he was a great philanthropist who gave away millions to libraries and colleges so that people can improve their education and lives for themselves. Carnegie did not believe in simply giving people money, it would not improve them or demonstrate a work ethic. Carnegie believed in Social Darwinism and wanted people to fight for themselves and their own success, as he had to. Carnegie was born into a poor working-class family in Scotland. The massive changes that occurred during the Industrial Revolution proved difficult for Carnegie's father. The rapid shift in the need for artisans towards industrialization caused his father to lose his weaving business. The Carnegie family was opposed to the idea of ​​a privileged class, who acquired their wealth simply through inheritance. This type of education played an important role in Andrew Carnegie's future. Probably because of the trials he saw his father go through; Carnegie would reject the idea of ​​living a life of poverty and would do everything in his power to achieve that...... middle of paper ......tobiography of Andrew Carnegie; and, The Gospel of Wealth. Ney York: Indy Publishing Company, 1996.McCloskey, Robert Green. American Conservatism in the Corporate Age. Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 1951. Morris, Charles R. The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005. Nasaw, David. Andrew Carnegie. New York: Penguin Group, 2006. Standiford, Les. See you in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the bitter partnership that transformed America. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2005. The richest man in the world: Andrew Carnegie. Directed by Austin Hoyt. Performed by Narr. David Ogden Stiers. 1997. Werth, Barry. Banquet at Delmonico's: the great minds, the golden age and the triumph of evolution in America. New York: Random House, 2009.