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The Gospel of Wealth

Written by: Andrew Carnegie
Narrated by: Douglas Harvey
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Publisher's Summary

Andrew Carnegie, an immigrant from Dunfermline, Scotland with only a grammar-school education, amassed a fortune in the steel industry the 1800’s to become the richest American in history.  

Yet Carnegie believed strongly that the wealthy should live modestly, without ostentation, and devote their energies after achieving wealth to finding ways to invest their “surplus wealth” in ways that benefit the public. Historically, private fortunes were handed down to heirs, with bequests to the state for public purposes as well. Carnegie observed that fortunes were often squandered in self-indulgent extravagance and irresponsible spending and felt such funds would be better put to use to help the poor help themselves and reduce the stratification of the classes.  

He favored a system of progressive inheritance taxes to help facilitate this distribution, but also felt the best results would be achieved when those that had made the fortunes turned their attention to investing their capital in charitable enterprises that they controlled and even managed. He initially published his controversial ideas in the North American Review 1880 in an article entitled “Wealth”. 

It was later re-titled The Gospel of Wealth and published in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1889. It has become the foundation document that sets forth much of the thinking behind philanthropy since his time. It has been called the "urtext" of modern philanthropy by Benjamin Soskis, a historian of philanthropy. The article appears here in two versions. The first is a new narration by D. S. Harvey and the second is recording of Carnegie himself.

Public Domain (P)2018 Douglas Harvey

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Very short but beneficial read!

This seems to be the first review on this book. It is a very short read. It is more like an essay by Andrew Carnegie. The book is around 33 minutes long, and the last 7 minutes or so contains the recording of Andrew Carnegie himself reading his essay! Felt like time travelling listening to his speech.

As for the content, it is more like the philosophy of wealth instead of how to accumulate wealth. It talks about how Andrew Carnegie thinks wealth should be distributed among the society for the greatest benefits of mankind as a whole. So if you are looking for Carnegie's personal advice on how to build a business and accumulate wealth, you won't find it here.

However, it does reveal the philosophy of one of the world's wealthiest businessmen in his generation and his mental approach to wealth. I believe this short read can be refreshing and motivating for people to try to not only better themselves in the pursuit of wealth, but also to benefit others by bringing value to their communities.

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