primary source analysis paper

Mary Klann HIST 110 – Fall 2019 September 20, 2019

Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth

The United States saw vast industrial development in the late nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries. During this era, known as the “Gilded Age,” manufacturing industries such

as steel, machinery, chemicals, and packaged foods grew, transforming the nation from a country

of farmers into an industrial society. (Module 5 Lecture Slides) Ordinary Americans experienced

drastic changes in their everyday lives. In addition to increasing access to technological

innovations like typewriters, telephones, and refrigeration, the workplace became more

mechanized and routinized. (Module 5 Lecture Slides) However, although Americans all over

the country felt these changes, not everyone profited from them. The Gilded Age was an age of

sweeping economic development but also extreme inequality. Leaders of newly consolidated

corporations worked to improve efficiency, cut costs, and grow profits. By the 1890s, steel

magnate Andrew Carnegie and other businessmen like J.D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan had

accumulated vast amounts of wealth, fortunes that are “still among the largest the nation has ever

seen.” (American Yawp, Ch 16, Part III) Carnegie and other “captains of industry” were part of

an elite class of Americans which not only controlled the majority of the nation’s wealth, but

shaped American understandings of “high” culture. (Module 5 Lecture Slides) Carnegie justified

the societal and economic inequality that his own business practices exacerbated by asserting

that millionaires like himself were beneficial for American society: they were “the bees that

make the most honey, and contribute most to the hive even after they have gorged themselves

full.” (Module 5 Lecture Slides)

Commented [MCK1]: Make sure you include your name somewhere in the document.

Commented [MCK2]: Use the title of the primary source for the title of your paper.

Commented [MCK3]: Citations can be in this simple format. When in doubt, cite your information.

Commented [MCK4]: Use direct quotes from secondary sources like the American Yawp textbook sparingly. Only use them when you are sure there is no better way to state this information.

Commented [MCK5]: The historical context you highlight should be relevant to your specific source. What background information is necessary to establish before you can get into more detailed analysis of your source?

In his essay, “Wealth,” published in the North American Review in 1889, Carnegie

argued that inequality itself was a marker of advanced civilization. It was better, he reasoned, to

have “great irregularity” between the wealth of laborers and the upper echelons of society than to

have “universal squalor.” (Carnegie, Ch 16) Carnegie maintained that despite this “irregularity,”

all Americans were better off in 1889 than they had been in the past. With industrialization came

radical change to Americans’ lives. According to Carnegie, it was the “man of Wealth” who was

responsible for initiating this “revolution” of the “conditions of human life.” (Carnegie, Ch 16)

Thus, millionaires were the driving force behind progress itself—not only were they to be

thanked for “wonderful material development[s]” but also advancing American society to a new

“stage in the development of the race.” (Carnegie, Ch 16) Carnegie’s “gospel of wealth” imbued

Gilded Age business practices, economic competition, and vast social inequality with scientific

power: the success of millionaires like Carnegie was proof of American advanced development.

It was impossible for all Americans to share in the same wealth as the “few” who

controlled industrial and commercial business. But with that wealth came the power to move

American society forward, to act as “trustee for the poor,” and use their resources “for the

general good.” (Carnegie, Ch 16) Carnegie’s emphasis that inequality signified societal progress

echoed Social Darwinist thinkers from the age who argued that in order for American society to

be truly free, it needed to be unequal. For example, William Graham Sumner, prominent

American Social Darwinist, argued that there were only two options: “liberty, inequality,

survival of the fittest” or “not-liberty, equality, survival of the unfittest.” (Module 6 Lecture

Slides) In his essay, Carnegie reiterated these ideals. The “law of competition” ensured the

“survival of the fittest in every department.” (Carnegie, Ch 16) To Carnegie, true progress and

Commented [MCK6]: In the analysis portion, this essay focuses on the purpose of the source—what was the author’s main message or argument?

Commented [MCK7]: Utilizing quotes from your primary source can help to elevate your analysis. To make sure your voice is strong, keep quotes short.

Commented [MCK8]: The author’s place in society is another key aspect of this particular primary source, and plays a large role in the analysis.

Commented [MCK9]: In your analysis, be sure to connect the source to the historical context you established in the first paragraph.

Commented [MCK10]: The analysis section also explores some other implications/conclusions that can be drawn from the source by connecting it to other examples from lectures.

liberty meant that millionaires like himself should have the ability to freely accumulate as much

wealth as they were able. This would ultimately advance American society. Commented [MCK11]: This particular essay only focused on three of the questions listed under the analysis guidelines in the prompt: the questions on purpose, author, and other implications. It is up to you to decide which question(s) will yield the most fruitful analysis for your particular source.