Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America 
asked by radar on November 29, 2006 5:12 PM
The relationship between industrialists Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick is an illuminating window on American capitalism as well as a fascinating study of how a strong partnership can give way to vicious acrimony. Les Standiford tells the story of the two men in Meet You in Hell, a book that draws its title from Frick's angry rejoinder to Carnegie's late-in-life attempt at reconciliation. Carnegie and Frick, in Standiford's estimation, represented all that was good and bad in American capitalism. They were self-made men, rising from blue-collar backgrounds to become titans in the burgeoning American steel industry, some of the wealthiest men in the world, and loyal partners, even if they were always somewhat short of being actual friends. But they were also pivotal figures in the infamous Homestead Steel strike, where Frick, acting on implicit orders from Carnegie, dispatched hundreds of private security guards into a testy labor situation, resulting in mayhem and death on all sides and forever casting a pall over the history of American labor relations. While Carnegie and Frick's acumen in getting rich is given due credit, Standiford also tells of the workers who were exploited or killed in that same effort. Standiford presents Carnegie and Frick without prejudice, demonstrating their fierce competitiveness, short tempers, business savvy, and troublesome character flaws. The reader also comes to realize that, although there were some negligible differences, the two men are so similar and so powerful that a falling out was inevitable. Meet You in Hell is a valuable insight into the ideas and personalities that shaped American industrialization as well as an interesting parallel to a contemporary economic reality where American jobs, particularly in the manufacturing sector, are threatened and often lost to overseas labor. --John Moe
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I just returned from Pittsburgh when I found this book at a local bookstore. Interested in learning more about the Homestead lockout/strike of 1892, I purchased this book and was never disappointed. Very readable... and entertaining. The author has a gift for bringing to life people and events that surely could have been dull and boring. I thank every steel worker who ever worked at Homestead, for every ride at Kennywood Amusement Park and for every steel framed skyscraper/construction that exist in my own New York City home! I thank the author for revealing the 'war that goes on within us' that was exhibited in the personalities of Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. Thank you.
reviewed by smiling on November 29, 2006 7:42 PM
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Meet You in Hell is well-researched and well-written. I enjoyed it very much and have been recommending it to my patrons who like non-fiction.
reviewed by csean85 on November 29, 2006 7:42 PM
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Les Standiford's Meet You in Hell is ostensibly a history of the "Parnership that Transformed America" between Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie. The problem with this book begins there. Its center is the Homestead Strike and labor unrest in an industrial giant and the beginning of organized labor in the face of very powerful and often ruthless business organizations. The author states upfront his goal was to "focus upoon the thread of a relationship (between Carnegie and Frick)and have restricted my attention for the most part to matters pertaining thereto". I was expecting a true look into the partnership between the two such as No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin (where she brilliantly wrote of Franklin and Elenor Roosevelt's relationship and the effects it had on public policy as well as their own lives). I was sadly disappointed.
This book is a short, if disjointed read. Just over 300 pages and it isn't until the last 50 that Standiford turns his attention to the relationship between these two very powerful and driven men. The bibliography should be read before one even reads page one. It is one and a half pages, most undergraduate college papers have done greater "research". The author at times seems to derail himself in the rare instances where he might capture the reader's attention. In discussing in detail the Homestead Strike he states, at the beginning of a chapter, "Had this been a modern-day standoff, with Frick in close touch . . . by cell phone and Carnegie observing the scene via CNN satellite feed . . . ". This incredibly obvious note was nonscensical. All history would be different if communications were instant rather than weeks and even months just a relatively short time ago. Either Standiford is not qualified to write history (certainly a possibility if you see his creditials) or he thinks his readers daft.
This book is only slightly interesting if you would like to learn more about the Homestead Strike and, even there, it adds no real insight. I finished it only as I was determined to learn more about Carnegie and Frick and, importantly, their parnership. I did not. I would caution that any serious readers of history not make the same mistake I did thinking that something could be learned by reading this pithy writing. It cannot.
Most succinctly put, books about history should be written by qualified historians. This one was not.
This book is a short, if disjointed read. Just over 300 pages and it isn't until the last 50 that Standiford turns his attention to the relationship between these two very powerful and driven men. The bibliography should be read before one even reads page one. It is one and a half pages, most undergraduate college papers have done greater "research". The author at times seems to derail himself in the rare instances where he might capture the reader's attention. In discussing in detail the Homestead Strike he states, at the beginning of a chapter, "Had this been a modern-day standoff, with Frick in close touch . . . by cell phone and Carnegie observing the scene via CNN satellite feed . . . ". This incredibly obvious note was nonscensical. All history would be different if communications were instant rather than weeks and even months just a relatively short time ago. Either Standiford is not qualified to write history (certainly a possibility if you see his creditials) or he thinks his readers daft.
This book is only slightly interesting if you would like to learn more about the Homestead Strike and, even there, it adds no real insight. I finished it only as I was determined to learn more about Carnegie and Frick and, importantly, their parnership. I did not. I would caution that any serious readers of history not make the same mistake I did thinking that something could be learned by reading this pithy writing. It cannot.
Most succinctly put, books about history should be written by qualified historians. This one was not.
reviewed by mullers on November 29, 2006 7:42 PM
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Carnegie Hall. Carnegie Mellon University. The Carnegie Library - not just 1, but 3000 of them throughout the English speaking world. Much of the legacy of Andrew Carnegie is that of his philanthropic efforts. In 1901 Andrew Carnegie received nearly $230 million from the sale of Carnegie Steel. He spent the rest of his life giving away almost all of that fortune.
Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie's one-time partner at Carnegie Steel, directed that his mansion and personal art collection be converted into an art museum upon his death. His Pittsburgh mansion, Clayton, is a popular field trip site in Western Pennsylvania.
Andrew Carnegie was the founder of Carnegie Steel, and Henry Clay Frick founded HC Frick Coke, supplier to Carnegie Steel, who eventually became Carnegie's business partner. But over time their relationship soured, and they became estranged to the point that, when Carnegie sought a meeting of reconciliation in 1919, Frick's response was, "Yes, you can tell Carnegie I'll meet him. Tell him I'll see him in Hell, where we both are going."
The intertwining of the lives and business dealings of Carnegie and Frick are the subject of "Meet you in hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the bitter partnership that transformed America" by Les Standiford. The book is something of a highly abbreviated biography of both men, concentrating on the time period during which Frick was the Chairman of Carnegie Steel.
The book spends a significant amount of time discussing the events surrounding the Homestead strike of 1892, which found Carnegie, who portrayed himself as pro-labor, conveniently spending the summer in Scotland while Frick managed the events of the strike, bringing in non-union workers and a detail of 300 Pinkerton agents. The confrontation resulted in the deaths of 3 Pinkerton agents and 7 strikers, with many others on both sides of the confrontation being wounded. One result of the failed strike was that union organizing in the steel industry was dealt a serious blow from which it did not recover until the 1930s. The strike also set in motion the events leading to the falling out of Frick and Carnegie, which took place over several years until Frick was finally ousted in 1900.
Despite this book's title, it's not solely about the conflict(s) between Carnegie and Frick. Rather, it's a short and interesting history of two of the most prominent players in the rise of the steel industry in America. Brought together by the steel industry, they forged a successful business partnership, had some conflicts, and acrimoniously parted ways. Carnegie and Frick experienced the conflicts that are the norm among the giant egos of the business world, both past and present.
I found this to be an interesting book. I had heard of the Homestead Strike, but hadn't learned any of its history. And I certainly knew the names of Frick, Carnegie, Phipps, Mellon, and other prominent Pittsburghers, but I didn't know how they all fit into the Pittsburgh history picture. This book provides a good overview of these topics. Standiford does display a strong pro-union bias throughout the book, always referring to the replacement workers as "scabs," for example, when detailing the events of the Homestead Strike. This makes it more difficult for the reader to distill the objective history from the author's opinions.
I do recommend this book for readers who want to acquaint themselves with the names of Carnegie and Frick, as well as those looking for an overview of the birth of America's steel industry, including a popular summary of the events of the Homestead strike. The book may pique the reader's interest for further reading about these events. But even if this book is all that you ever read on these topics, you'll be more educated for having done so.
Henry Clay Frick, Carnegie's one-time partner at Carnegie Steel, directed that his mansion and personal art collection be converted into an art museum upon his death. His Pittsburgh mansion, Clayton, is a popular field trip site in Western Pennsylvania.
Andrew Carnegie was the founder of Carnegie Steel, and Henry Clay Frick founded HC Frick Coke, supplier to Carnegie Steel, who eventually became Carnegie's business partner. But over time their relationship soured, and they became estranged to the point that, when Carnegie sought a meeting of reconciliation in 1919, Frick's response was, "Yes, you can tell Carnegie I'll meet him. Tell him I'll see him in Hell, where we both are going."
The intertwining of the lives and business dealings of Carnegie and Frick are the subject of "Meet you in hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the bitter partnership that transformed America" by Les Standiford. The book is something of a highly abbreviated biography of both men, concentrating on the time period during which Frick was the Chairman of Carnegie Steel.
The book spends a significant amount of time discussing the events surrounding the Homestead strike of 1892, which found Carnegie, who portrayed himself as pro-labor, conveniently spending the summer in Scotland while Frick managed the events of the strike, bringing in non-union workers and a detail of 300 Pinkerton agents. The confrontation resulted in the deaths of 3 Pinkerton agents and 7 strikers, with many others on both sides of the confrontation being wounded. One result of the failed strike was that union organizing in the steel industry was dealt a serious blow from which it did not recover until the 1930s. The strike also set in motion the events leading to the falling out of Frick and Carnegie, which took place over several years until Frick was finally ousted in 1900.
Despite this book's title, it's not solely about the conflict(s) between Carnegie and Frick. Rather, it's a short and interesting history of two of the most prominent players in the rise of the steel industry in America. Brought together by the steel industry, they forged a successful business partnership, had some conflicts, and acrimoniously parted ways. Carnegie and Frick experienced the conflicts that are the norm among the giant egos of the business world, both past and present.
I found this to be an interesting book. I had heard of the Homestead Strike, but hadn't learned any of its history. And I certainly knew the names of Frick, Carnegie, Phipps, Mellon, and other prominent Pittsburghers, but I didn't know how they all fit into the Pittsburgh history picture. This book provides a good overview of these topics. Standiford does display a strong pro-union bias throughout the book, always referring to the replacement workers as "scabs," for example, when detailing the events of the Homestead Strike. This makes it more difficult for the reader to distill the objective history from the author's opinions.
I do recommend this book for readers who want to acquaint themselves with the names of Carnegie and Frick, as well as those looking for an overview of the birth of America's steel industry, including a popular summary of the events of the Homestead strike. The book may pique the reader's interest for further reading about these events. But even if this book is all that you ever read on these topics, you'll be more educated for having done so.
reviewed by bugger on November 29, 2006 7:43 PM
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We live in a time where it's hard to comprehend the wealth, power, and influence wielded by men like Carnegie, Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Vanderbilt. Folks like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett carry only a whisper of the Goliath stature that was attained by a select few in the 1800s.
"Meet You in Hell" is Les Standiford's telling of the story of the rise and fall of a relationship between two such men, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. Frick, the lesser known of the two, created an empire of his own in coke production (the steel-making input, not the soda or the drug) before being swallowed up by Carnegie Steel and agreeing to run that entire operation for Carnegie.
Carnegie was a man accustomed to getting his own way, but his new employee Frick possessed his own ideas on how a company should be run. The differences between the two surfaced occassionally early in their relationship, and were tested further by the Homestead Mill strike in 1890s which ended in the deaths of many strikers and Pinkerton detectives.
This conflict is the true focus of this book, but interestingly doesn't come across as the watershed in the relationship between Carnegie and Frick that Standiford really wants it to be for the sake of his book. That honor comes later, when Frick tries to trick Carnegie into selling his company to a secret group of speculators with a terrible reputation on Wall Street.
This book is still quite an interesting story about the Homestead strike, labor relations in the industrial age, and the realtionship between two titans of industry, but the stories don't mesh the way Standiford sets you up to believe they will. That doesn't hurt this book much - it's still well worth reading - but it's interesting that Standiford stuck with this central premise long after his research and even his own writing showed that it had fallen apart.
Flawed, but certainly not fatally so. Still recommended for its history of labor relations, the relationship between Carnegie and Frick, and the US steel industry. An engaging and informative read.
"Meet You in Hell" is Les Standiford's telling of the story of the rise and fall of a relationship between two such men, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick. Frick, the lesser known of the two, created an empire of his own in coke production (the steel-making input, not the soda or the drug) before being swallowed up by Carnegie Steel and agreeing to run that entire operation for Carnegie.
Carnegie was a man accustomed to getting his own way, but his new employee Frick possessed his own ideas on how a company should be run. The differences between the two surfaced occassionally early in their relationship, and were tested further by the Homestead Mill strike in 1890s which ended in the deaths of many strikers and Pinkerton detectives.
This conflict is the true focus of this book, but interestingly doesn't come across as the watershed in the relationship between Carnegie and Frick that Standiford really wants it to be for the sake of his book. That honor comes later, when Frick tries to trick Carnegie into selling his company to a secret group of speculators with a terrible reputation on Wall Street.
This book is still quite an interesting story about the Homestead strike, labor relations in the industrial age, and the realtionship between two titans of industry, but the stories don't mesh the way Standiford sets you up to believe they will. That doesn't hurt this book much - it's still well worth reading - but it's interesting that Standiford stuck with this central premise long after his research and even his own writing showed that it had fallen apart.
Flawed, but certainly not fatally so. Still recommended for its history of labor relations, the relationship between Carnegie and Frick, and the US steel industry. An engaging and informative read.
reviewed by dannyboy on November 29, 2006 7:43 PM