Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1835, Andrew Carnegie immigrated with his family to the United States and settled in 1848 in Pittsburgh. (His father was a skilled weaver who had fallen on hard times and decided to start anew in America.) In Pittsburgh young Carnegie worked in various mills and factories then secured a position as a telegraph operator for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He soon entered the hierarchy of railroad management and began to prosper; by the end of the Civil War he held investments in a range of businesses and had moved into the manufacture of bridges. In 1872 Carnegie entered the steel business, rising to dominate the industry by the end of the nineteenth century. In 1901 he retired, selling the Carnegie Steel Company (which produced a quarter of the nation's total steel output) to banker J. P. Morgan for nearly $500 million. At the time Morgan called...