Once the beehive coke oven was perfected in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, the coal and coke industry began to flourish and supply other fledgling industries with the fuel they needed to succeed. The thrust of this growth came from Henry Clay Frick, who opened his first coal mines in the Morgan Valley of Fayette County in 1871. There, he helped lead the industry, making it the major developmental force in industrial America. This book traces the birth and growth of the early coal and coke industry from 1870 to 1920, primarily in Fayette and Westmoreland Counties. Beyond Frick's importance to the industry, other major topics covered in this history include the lives and struggles of the miners and immigrants who worked in the industry, the growth of unions and the many strikes in the region, and the attempts to clean the surrounding waterways from the horrific pollution that resulted from industrial development. Perhaps the most significant fact is that this book uses primary sources contemporary with the golden age of the coal and coke industry. That effort offers an alternative view and helps repair the common portrayal of Frick as corrupt by showing his work as that of an industrial genius.

Once the beehive coke oven was perfected in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, the coal and coke industry began to flourish and supply other fledgling industries with the fuel they needed to succeed. The thrust of this growth came from Henry Clay Frick, who opened his first coal mines in the Morgan Valley of Fayette County in 1871. There, he helped lead the industry, making it the major developmental force in industrial America. This book traces the birth and growth of the early coal and coke industry from 1870 to 1920, primarily in Fayette and Westmoreland Counties. Beyond Frick's importance to the industry, other major topics covered in this history include the lives and struggles of the miners and immigrants who worked in the industry, the growth of unions and the many strikes in the region, and the attempts to clean the surrounding waterways from the horrific pollution that resulted from industrial development. Perhaps the most significant fact is that this book uses primary sources contemporary with the golden age of the coal and coke industry. That effort offers an alternative view and helps repair the common portrayal of Frick as corrupt by showing his work as that of an industrial genius.

"Mr. Schwab is a genius. I have never met his equal." So stated renowned industrialist Andrew Carnegie about Charles M. Schwab, successively the president of Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel, and Bethlehem Steel. Though an inveterate gambler and womanizer, Schwab held a smile and charisma that got him in and out of multiple adventures. This biography presents the complex legacy of the man Thomas Edison once called the "master hustler," from his start as a stake-driver in the engineering corps to his ascendancy to American steel magnate.

In the 1890s, the Carnegie Veterans Association began as a group of boyhood friends and older Andrew Carnegie steel partners united to share business ideas, but it evolved into a powerful secretive network in American business circles. By 1925, these Carnegie lieutenants controlled more than 60 percent of the country's industrial assets. Haunted by their past with Carnegie Steel, they demanded a new ethical relationship with labor and adopted a philanthropic philosophy of paternal capitalism, building libraries, churches, schools, and hospitals. Ultimately, their experiments in industrial democracy and "progressive industrialism" failed, but their efforts formed the root of future cooperative management and employee participation. This chronicle of the evolution and legacy of this influential association offers a new, more complex perspective on Carnegie and demonstrates how he and his lieutenants helped to shape America's view of capitalism.

Chronicles Helen Clay Frick's lifelong commitment to social welfare, the environment, and her purchase of many significant works of art for her private collection, the Frick Collection in New York, the University of Pittsburgh teaching collection, and the Frick Art Museum.

Written by a close friend, this is the story of the industrialist, art collector, and benefactor.