by Les Standiford
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Product Description
Two founding fathers of American industry.One desire to dominate business at any price.
The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the riveting story of Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the bloody steelworkers’ strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Set against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, Meet You in Hell captures the majesty and danger of steel manufacturing, the rough-and-tumble of the business world, and the fraught relationship between “the world’s richest man” and the ruthless coke magnate to whom he entrusted his companies. The result is an extraordinary work of popular history.
Also available as a Random House AudioBook and an eBook
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Average Customer Review:
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Good Industrial History, 2007-12-20
"Meet You In Hell" tells the fascinating stories of Steel King Andrew Carnegie and Coke King Henry Clay Frick and their interactions which shaped much of American Industrial history. It begins with sections on their personal and business backgrounds. It explains how their careers became intertwined as Frick's coke company became a primary supplier to Carnegie Steel. The breaking point of their relationship was the riot at the Homestead Mill, which was opposed by Frick while Carnegie remained in Scotland. Thereafter they became bitter rivals to their deaths.
As readers of my Amazon reviews are aware, I am an avid reader of history. This, while being history, is neither political nor military and, thereby, provides a different insight into forces which molded our nation.
Two ways that I evaluate books is by whether they teach me things that I did not know or if they do whet my appetite to read more on the subject. "Meet You In Hell" scores well on both tests. I was aware that Pinkerton agents were often used by management in labor disputes. The narrative dealing with the Battle of Homestead illustrates just how violent those disputes were. I had often seen Carnegie Libraries, but I did not realize that he was so resented among the laboring classes. After reading this I cannot wait until I can read another book on Industrial History. Any book that can ace both of these tests merits high marks.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Survivor: The American Steel Industry, 2007-09-06
Reading this book is a little like watching a reality TV show: two overbearing captains of industry stuck together in a bubble, unwittingly entertaining the public. Though there is little new revealed in "Meet You in Hell," Les Standiford's biography of this infamous business partnership, its value is how the book wonderfully tracks, in tandem, the two robber barons. There are already a dozen biographies of these men, but this book is the first to train its camera solely on the relationship, both business and personal. That's a great leap forward. Thank you, Les Standiford.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Excellent Read, 2007-08-04
After moving to Pittsburgh I toured Frick's mansion, Clayton. I find it to be so interesting that I picked this book up from the bookstore on the way home.
It turned out to be a fascinating read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. The author is able to make the history come alive and make the personalities of Carnegie and Frick identifiable.
Immediately after I finished I gave it to my wife and she loves it too.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
 And if they'd liked each other, then what?, 2007-05-28
Apart from retelling some ancient gossip, it's hard to figure out why "Meet You in Hell" was written.
That the rise of the American steel and (in a supporting role) coke industries changed the way we live is not news. That the partnership between Carnegie (steel) and Frick (coke) was bitter was, so far as anything this book shows, immaterial to that. The outcome would not have been different if they had gotten along well.
There is an enormous literature about steel and the different approaches of the American and British makers, the consequences of having the foundries concentrated so far east as Pittsburgh when the demand was moving west, metallurgical innovations etc. "Meet You in Hell" is innocent of all that.
A lot of time is spent ruminating over Carnegie's well-known inconsistencies about being rich. How that changed America is not explained. Standiford makes much of the "facts" that Carnegie was the richest man in the world and the most spectacular philanthropist -- neither of which was actually true.
Nor it is explained why Carnegie's philanthropy, which arose from ideas he was forming before he met Frick, had much to do with the partnership. Had Carnegie gone bust -- as might have happened -- Rockefeller would have given away twice as much, and Rockefeller's philanthropy also was based on what he decided in his young manhood.
For a time, while reading the book, I thought Standiford was going to do something with the Homestead strike of 1892, which really was a watershed in the way Americans behave. However, he doesn't do much to explain how labor conditions were trending before the Homestead violence, nor how they did so afterward. Besides, although Carnegie and Frick were feuding about lots of things, they were as one during Homestead.
"Meet You in Hell" adds nothing to what has long been known about Carnegie and Frick. If the intention was to introduce the episode to a new generation that never heard of either man, then the book is short on background.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Overall, A Good Period History, 2007-02-01
Les Standiford's work is, overall, a good period piece evoking the culture and events of late nineteenth century industrial America. He retains a critical perspective without damning his subjects as "robber barons," etc., seeing them in the context of their times and their essential humanity - even when behaving inhumanly.
There are a few inaccuracies, inconsistencies, irrelevancies, and just plain head scratchers: as on page 29, where he states: "In the wake of Ireland's Great Potato Famine, the family sold everything and came, as so many of their fellow Scotsmen did, to America." While this is factually true, one wonders what the Irish potato famine had to do with Scottish immigrants, particularly the Carnegies of Dunfermline. The relevance to the subject remains obscure, unless there's a connection that Mr. Standiford is not sharing with his readers. (?)
In general, though, it's a good read, and a good introduction for the general reader who's just learning about the era, the fruits of which are still part of the life around him: from the 19th century buildings which yet remain in northern US cities, to the remnants of American industry, and the great financial institutions of Wall Street.
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