What was the Gospel of Wealth, and what effect did it have on the United States?

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Assignment 2: Chapters 19 and 20

Chapters 19 and 20

What was the Gospel of Wealth, and what effect did it have on the United States?

Andrew Carnegie's 1889 essay, "Wealth,” argued for a broad social and cultural role for

fellow industrialists. It later became famous under the name, "The Gospel of Wealth."  

The Gospel of Wealth, or sometimes the Gospel of Success, was the term for a notion

promoted by many successful businessmen that their massive wealth was a social benefit

for all. The Gospel of Wealth was a softer and more palatable version of Social

Darwinism. The advocates linked wealth with responsibility, arguing that those with

great material possessions had equally great obligations to society.

Andrew Carnegie wrote his essay, the Gospel of Wealth in obvious support of the

ideologies expressed by Herbert Spencer the English social philosopher. The writing was

in direct correlation with the social Darwinism movement (Nash 610; 4). Carnegie

developed this mindset despite his extremely poor upbringing and the fact that his father

was heavily involved with unions and the rights of workers. Spencer adapted Charles

Darwin's notion of natural selection and applied the theory to human society in a

philosophy that became known as "Social Darwinism." It was Spencer who coined the

term "survival of the fittest," using it to apply to the fate of rich and poor in a laissez faire

capitalist society. Spencer argued that there was nothing unnatural or wrong with

competing and then rising to the top in a cut-throat capitalist world (Nash 611; 2).

This philosophy, Social Darwinism, did more harm than good for America. It served to

rationalize the elitist environment that would lead to gross monopolies across many of

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Americas’ core industries. Civil rights and fundamental worker rights and opportunities

were supplanted in the name of this perverse philosophy. To resolve what might seem to

be contradictions between the creation of wealth, which Carnegie saw as proceeding from

immutable social laws, and social provision he came up with the notion of the "gospel of

wealth". True to his word, he gave away his fortune to socially beneficial projects, most

famously by funding libraries. However, this ideology did not reach the working poor

who, through their backbreaking ...

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