Book Review: Samuel Bostaph's (2015) Andrew Carnegie: An Economic Biography (Lanham, Md: Lexington Books)

Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Forthcoming

5 Pages Posted: 26 Jan 2017

See all articles by David Gindis

David Gindis

University of Warwick - Warwick Law School

Date Written: August 17, 2016

Abstract

Samuel Bostaph, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Dallas, has written an Austrian-flavored biography of Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), one of the most important figures associated with the rise of big business in America. Contrary to the factual detail pertaining to Carnegie’s rags-to-riches life characteristic of existing voluminous biographies, Bostaph’s rendition is not only a concise account running merely 120 pages but also an “economic biography.” The objective is to provide a “fuller economic portrait” of the Scottish-born steel magnate and philanthropist “than has previously been drawn” (p. 8) by focusing not simply on the man but on the economic actor. More precisely, Bostaph argues that Carnegie is best understood as a Kirznerian entrepreneur, whose alertness to profit opportunities and early adoption of innovations allowed him to build a vast industrial empire, with both positive and negative effects for economic coordination in the American economy of the late nineteenth century.

Keywords: Andrew Carnegie, economic biography, Kirznerian entrepreneur

JEL Classification: B10, B53, N00, N81, L26

Suggested Citation

Gindis, David, Book Review: Samuel Bostaph's (2015) Andrew Carnegie: An Economic Biography (Lanham, Md: Lexington Books) (August 17, 2016). Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905557

David Gindis (Contact Author)

University of Warwick - Warwick Law School ( email )

Gibbet Hill Rd.
Coventry, West Midlands CV4 8UW
United Kingdom

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
31
Abstract Views
353
PlumX Metrics