Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America

by Les Standiford

book data

112 ratings, 3.62 average rating, 23 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		15%
4		40%
3		38%
2		4%
1		1%

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published

June 13th 2006 (first published 2005) by Three Rivers Press

binding

Paperback, 336 pages

isbn

1400047684 (isbn13: 9781400047680)

description

Two founding fathers of American industry.One desire to dominate business at any price.

The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the riveting story o...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 161)

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02/18/09

Paul is currently reading it

bookshelves: currently-reading

Dale Carnegie in his seminal work How to Win Friends and Influence People uses Andrew Carnegie as an example of a man who became very rich and famous by being genuinely nice to people. Well, gee, I thought if such a good guy can also be one of the wealthiest people who ever graced God's green earth, then, well, perhaps I am just wrong to excoriate Capitalism as an economic system that favors ruthlessness over virtue. So, I wanted to read more about this great, swell human being Andrew Carnegie,...more

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12/30/08

Sfmurphy rated it:

(review of isbn 1400047676)

Read in February, 2009

Recommended to me by my boss where I teach, Meet You in Hell details the relationship, at times contentious, eventually toxic, between steel baron Andrew Carnegie and his business partner, Henry Clay Frick. Both would have a role to play in the Homestead Steel Mill Strike of 1892, an event which would drive a wedge between the two men to their dying days.

Les Standiford does an excellent job of providing an accessible character study of the two figures, their ambitions, and their p...more

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01/12/09

Derek rated it:

A wonderfully imagined retelling of the partnership between southwestern Pennsylvania's two most important figures in steel manufacturing (with particular attention paid to the famous Homestead strike), Meet You in Hell ought to be required reading for anyone with an interest in the turn-of-the-century labor struggle or anyone, like myself, who grew up a century afterward, still in its shadow.

While both Frick and Carnegie are portrayed as confident, Machiavellian characters, Frick se...more A wonderfully imagined retelling of the partnership between southwestern Pennsylvania's two most important figures in steel manufacturing (with particular attention paid to the famous Homestead strike), Meet You in Hell ought to be required reading for anyone with an interest in the turn-of-the-century labor struggle or anyone, like myself, who grew up a century afterward, still in its shadow.

While both Frick and Carnegie are portrayed as confident, Machiavellian characters, Frick seems to be the more heartless of the two. Working his way up from nothing, and not given to sympathy or sentimentality, Frick proved himself an able businessman and became a partner in Carnegie's steel corporation. But as the book's title suggests, of course, the relationship eventually soured. Standiford ably humanizes these two people who at times seem larger than life, people whose only driving force appears to be profit. We see portions of their letters to loved ones and business partners, snippets of earnest conversation, snapshots of them with their respective grandchildren. But I don't know that the reader is ever able to completely know them, at least not in this book's brief pages, as their lives are so incredibly contrary to 99% of everyone else's. I'm not looking for a cheap device to explain Carnegie's or Frick's insatiable appetite for wealth and power (I imagine a lesser writer showing a young teary-eyed Carnegie at a dinner table bereft of food), but some passage that does not show them in a position of absolute power, perhaps, would go a long way in making them a little more knowable.

If Frick is portrayed as heartless, then Standiford appears to be interested in showing Carnegie as an unapologetic rewriter of his own history. He washes his hands of the Homestead debacle and then ensures that his name is etched in stone over so many admirable institutions as he gives away his fortune in his last years. The reader understands, however, that his "generosity" is not bore of an interest in improving those areas to which he gives his fortune, but rather an interest in buying a good name for himself. His fortune sufficiently bequeathed, his mansions sufficiently comfortable and enormous, Carnegie slept well.

It's a finely written book, a rare nonfiction one on my shelf, and one that prompted a lot of mixed feelings. I can admire and respect the work that these men did to help build our country, and the enormous and impossible amount of responsibility that they took on to make it happen. But I recognize, of course, that their success depended on the suffering of so many people, many of them my ancestors. Standiford remains neutral throughout the book, leaving the reader to come to his or her own conclusion.(less)

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1 comment

08/03/07

Kay rated it:

bookshelves: american-histry, biogr-memoir, gilded-age

Read in December, 2006

Having toured Frick's mansions in New York and Pittsburgh, as well as several of Carnegie's libraries, his eponymous university, and his mansion in New York, I was of course interested to hear how the two men famously fell out. The tale is not perhaps as dramatic as the title suggests, but it's still great stuff for anyone interested in the Gilded Age.

The central event of the book is the Homestead Steelworker's strike of 1890s. Acting under Carnegie's orders, Frick sent in strikebrea...more

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1 comment

07/01/09

Mallori rated it:

Read in April, 2009

I would give this book 3 1/2 stars. I read it for school, so just off the bat I am not going to like it because I had to read it. The only problem I had with it was that it was slow to the point, but I really think it had a really good underlying message that especially now when greed has taken over this country. Money isn't the key to everything and it is good to learn that lesson more than once because it is something that I really think would make a lot of people's life a lot easier.

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03/06/09

Johann rated it:

Good book about the rags to riches Dale Carnegie and Henry Frick. Gives a clear idea that disputing is a profitable business and that just good friends can become mortal enemies. Intense scenes especially at the Homestead Massacre though everywhere else is somewhat dry. Kind of a history buff book

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04/22/09

Gail rated it:

Read in April, 2009

One book by Les Standiford will lead you to another book by Les Standiford. One can't resist his quirky call. A nice small-scaled study of these two outsized characters -- bastards both, though Carnegie managed to do a lot of postumous mopping up of his mess.

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04/03/08

Jessica rated it:

bookshelves: history

Read in April, 2008

An excellent history of two complicated men. The story of Carnegie and Frick, their domination of the coke and steel industries, and their eventual falling out is a fascinating glimpse into American industrialization. Carnegie and Frick were both hard men, focused on cutting costs, even while paying their workers shockingly little, and yet later in life they each gave spectacular sums of money away. The story of the stupendous fortunes they amassed, often at the expense of the working men who...more

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04/16/09

Melissa rated it:

Read in May, 2009

Facinating story, one that I had never heard. The author does a pretty good job staying neutral, not siding with the workers, or the owners. The writing was a little dry, but hey its a book about business.

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03/24/08

Matthew rated it:

bookshelves: history

Read in February, 2006

An account of the homestead strike/massacre/incident as seen through the lens of the developing and then decaying professional and platonic relationship between Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick.

A thorough play by play of the rise of both men as well as the homestead strike that led to the deaths of many strikers and pinkerton men. A gilded and adjestive-strewn description of everything. Sympathetic to all except frick.

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09/11/08

Dennis rated it:

Read in September, 2008

Very interesting read. Just being enlightened to the working conditions in the late 19th and early 20th century was a big eye opener on its own right but the dynamic of the friendship the feud of Carnagie and Frick was almost a thing of fiction. If you have any interest in history, the steel industry, the late 19th century or a great story of a friendship gone sour this is a good book to pick up.

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03/02/09

Candi rated it:

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in April, 2009

I had to read this book for an economics class. It's an okay enough read, everything is factual. Sometimes I felt like it was trying to be a bit too intellectual, the narrative was a little stilted. It is compelling information and it's interesting to see the types of people upheld by our society as a paragon of achievement. I probably would not have read it if I didn't have to.

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09/30/08

Mark rated it:

Read in January, 2009

Very intriguing book. The author was able to keep me entertained while I learned about an important piece of history. I had of course heard of the steel man Andrew Carnegie but not of Henry Frick. I also had no previous incites on Carnegie's personal character and it was neat to peer into a little of who that man was.

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05/18/08

David rated it:

this is a great story. at times it is hard to believe it is non fiction. not only is the story good but the author includes a the lot of the characters original letters and writings so you get a good idea of what they were actually thinking instead of the authors view of what they were thinking.

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06/05/07

Marlissa rated it:

(review of isbn 1400047676)

bookshelves: have, history, to-read

As I am currently reading this, I can't say to much on it other he gets some of his facts wrong about Henry Clay Frick. That's only from what I tell visitors coming to West Overton from the tour information. Other than that, I am learning more about the Homestead Strike and the events leading up to it.

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02/24/08

Janet rated it:

Read in June, 2007

This book was really fascinating. Since I'm born and raised in Pittsburgh, of course I know a bit about Carnegie and Frick but I hadn't been aware of their deep animosity toward each other. It's a nice look at the way things were for big wigs back in the day.

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06/24/08

Erin rated it:

bookshelves: currently-reading

Stalled on this one when I picked up other things for book club, but really was enjoying the look at two of America's greatest industrialists. Will just finished it and really liked it.

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10/08/07

Don rated it:

The writing is expectedly unremarkable in a predictable pop-nonfiction kind of way but these guys were such fucking ballers that the history of fucking ballerdom still reverberates.

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04/30/08

Gail Thornton rated it:

This book is for anyone who wants to know more about the titans of business in the late 19th C. They became as rich as Bill Gates today! Very interesting.

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