Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry — Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick — and the bloody steelworkers’ strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Author Les Standiford begins at the bitter end, when the dying Carnegie proposes a final meeting after two decades of separation, probably to ease his … his conscience. Frick’s reply: “Tell him that I’ll meet him in hell.”
It is a fitting epitaph. Set against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, a time when Horatio Alger preached the gospel of upward mobility and expansionism went hand in hand with optimism, Meet You in Hell is a classic tale of two men who embodied the best and worst of American capitalism. Standiford conjures up the majesty and danger of steel manufacturing, the rough-and-tumble of late-nineteenth-century big business, and the fraught relationship of “the world’s richest man” and the ruthless coke magnate to whom he entrusted his companies. Enamored of Social Darwinism, the emerging school of thought that applied the notion of survival of the fittest to human society, both Carnegie and Frick would introduce revolutionary new efficiencies and meticulous cost control to their enterprises, and would quickly come to dominate the world steel market.
But their partnership had a dark side, revealed most starkly by their brutal handling of the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892. When Frick, acting on Carnegie’s orders to do whatever was necessary, unleashed three hundred Pinkerton detectives, the result was the deadliest clash between management and labor in U.S. history. WHILE BLOOD FLOWED, FRICK SMOKED ran one newspaper headline. The public was outraged. An anarchist tried to assassinate Frick. Even today, the names Carnegie and Frick cannot be uttered in some union-friendly communities.
Resplendent with tales of backroom chicanery, bankruptcy, philanthropy, and personal idiosyncrasy, Meet You in Hell is a fitting successor to Les Standiford’s masterly Last Train to Paradise. Artfully weaving the relationship of these titans through the larger story of a young nation’s economic rise, Standiford has created an extraordinary work of popular history.
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Always found Andrew Carnegie to be deplorable. This book examines his relationship with Henry Clay Frick, their abominable business practices and activities. If alive today, they’d be rabid Drumpf supporters. Accoerding to them, workers were fodder for their profit making, at times worth less tan the coke that fed local steel mills.
A great trip into history and larger than life movers and shakers.
I first learned of the connection between Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick in The Johnstown Flood (synopsis: dam on artificial lake for the pleasure of the likes of Carnegie and Frick fails and the ensuing flood kills thousands, but no one is held accountable). Meet You in Hell mentions the flood only in passing, but focuses much of its …
Great historical story of STEEL’s beginning.
Interesting characters!
Makes you dislike the captains of the univers even more.
While it was a little tedious at times, I enjoyed learning about the two giants of a bygone era.
I was not familiar with this history and found it riveting (no pun intended for a book about steel making). The author moves you along and keeps all the pieces in perspective. This is truly an important and fascinating tale about 2 men who actually did make America what we are today and whose lives and lessons speak to us right now about what we …
A well written book about the completion between Carnegie and Frick, beyond business rivalry, extending in to the arts as well. It is a history book, but certainly entertaining and informative.
Fascinating history of two industrial giants, Carnegie and Frick. Good read!
Great history lesson. Two of the steel industry’s greatest, but not a moral fiber between them for the working man.
pretty good.
Excellent history of the period
Brought era and characters to life
Informative. An inside look at a partnership gone bad.