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. 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. Frick’s reply: “Tell him that I’ll meet him in hell.” 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 conscience. 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.
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