Standiford, Les. Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter
Partnership that Transformed America. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005. Les Standiford’s book Meet You in Hell focuses on the relationship between Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick and how their partnership affected the steel industry and American unions and politics. Les Standiford is an author and historian who has written many fiction and non-fiction books, including a mystery series and a book on Henry Flagler and William Mulholland. Standiford has also received many awards including the Barnes and Noble Great New Writers Award, the Frank O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Standiford stated in his book …show more content…
In part one, Standiford discussed both Carnegie and Frisk’s humble beginnings, though he did not get to Frisk’s page 52 showing his first indication of bias towards Carnegie. Standiford went into great detail about Carnegie’s early exploits prior to his involvement into the steel industry and only Standiford wrote about his involvement in steel did he get around to writing a rather brief biography on Frisk’s life up to the point that Carnegie came to him. Following this, Standiford wrote how the two eventually became partners and how Frick came to be essentially in charge of the entire company while Carnegie was away in Scotland. Part two of the book discussed the Homestead strike and how Frick handled the strike by sending in Pinkerton soldiers to their deaths so that the militia would come and protect the factory there. Lastly, part three discussed how Frisk was almost killed and was then ousted out of the company by Carnegie after Frisk tried to get Carnegie to sell the company so that they can retire. Lastly, Standiford talked about the animosity that emerged between the pair and then about their later lives and deaths. While this is a very interesting story and is one that many people should read, Standiford as an author and a historian does not provide a source that is reputable to use for historical …show more content…
Without the use of citing any of his quotations properly, historians would have a hard time using this book as a stepping stone in their research into Carnegie and Frick’s lives. While they could use the sources that Standiford supplied in the back of the book, it is very highly unlikely that he only used the 24 sources as his main resources and one will not be able to find the newspaper articles he referenced without again having to go through the trouble of finding them for themselves. The number of assumptions that Standiford made within this book is too great for this to be considered a historical piece of literature. Lastly, by including a bias towards Carnegie, the focus of the piece only shows Carnegie in a positive light while a historian should attempt to avoid showing a bias and give the facts to allow the reader to come up with their own opinion on the subject of the work. In conclusion, Meet You in Hell by Les Standiford is an interesting read for average audiences wishing to learn more on the subject of Carnegie and Frick; however, for a historian, this work is almost useless due to the lack of citations and multiple assumptions made throughout the book all of which diminished the credibility of the
Partnership that Transformed America. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005. Les Standiford’s book Meet You in Hell focuses on the relationship between Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick and how their partnership affected the steel industry and American unions and politics. Les Standiford is an author and historian who has written many fiction and non-fiction books, including a mystery series and a book on Henry Flagler and William Mulholland. Standiford has also received many awards including the Barnes and Noble Great New Writers Award, the Frank O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Standiford stated in his book …show more content…
In part one, Standiford discussed both Carnegie and Frisk’s humble beginnings, though he did not get to Frisk’s page 52 showing his first indication of bias towards Carnegie. Standiford went into great detail about Carnegie’s early exploits prior to his involvement into the steel industry and only Standiford wrote about his involvement in steel did he get around to writing a rather brief biography on Frisk’s life up to the point that Carnegie came to him. Following this, Standiford wrote how the two eventually became partners and how Frick came to be essentially in charge of the entire company while Carnegie was away in Scotland. Part two of the book discussed the Homestead strike and how Frick handled the strike by sending in Pinkerton soldiers to their deaths so that the militia would come and protect the factory there. Lastly, part three discussed how Frisk was almost killed and was then ousted out of the company by Carnegie after Frisk tried to get Carnegie to sell the company so that they can retire. Lastly, Standiford talked about the animosity that emerged between the pair and then about their later lives and deaths. While this is a very interesting story and is one that many people should read, Standiford as an author and a historian does not provide a source that is reputable to use for historical …show more content…
Without the use of citing any of his quotations properly, historians would have a hard time using this book as a stepping stone in their research into Carnegie and Frick’s lives. While they could use the sources that Standiford supplied in the back of the book, it is very highly unlikely that he only used the 24 sources as his main resources and one will not be able to find the newspaper articles he referenced without again having to go through the trouble of finding them for themselves. The number of assumptions that Standiford made within this book is too great for this to be considered a historical piece of literature. Lastly, by including a bias towards Carnegie, the focus of the piece only shows Carnegie in a positive light while a historian should attempt to avoid showing a bias and give the facts to allow the reader to come up with their own opinion on the subject of the work. In conclusion, Meet You in Hell by Les Standiford is an interesting read for average audiences wishing to learn more on the subject of Carnegie and Frick; however, for a historian, this work is almost useless due to the lack of citations and multiple assumptions made throughout the book all of which diminished the credibility of the