Product Description

America is built on a steel skeleton. Without Andrew Carnegie, that skeleton-and the nation-might have taken a different form. Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel visits historic ironworks-namely Saugus and Hopewell-as well as today's massive, computerized steel mills and chronicles the evolution of the industry. Learn how Carnegie built an empire so large that it led to the first billion-dollar corporation and listen as industrial historians detail the technological developments that powered the nation's economy and launched steel into the future. Witness the setbacks, too, such as intense labor unrest and increasing international competition. Through expert interviews, period photos, and rare archival footage, THE HISTORY CHANNEL® illuminates the industry that built America-and the man who forged that industry. DVD Features: Interactive Menus; Scene Selection. Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel chronicles the rise of the iron and steel industries in the United States and the personal ascent of immigrant Andrew Carnegie, whose steel company would one day make him the richest man in America. The American iron, and later steel, industries were the backbone of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, supplying the material that would enable the growth of railroads, skyscrapers, war machines and a host of other industries. It is the story of the rise of big industry in the United States, in all its glory, and all its shame. While the steel industry would make men such as Andrew Carnegie wealthy beyond imagination, it would also cripple, maim, and kill those who toiled to keep the furnaces blasting and the steel rolling.

Empires of Industry is a mini-series which explores the cornerstones of America's economic might that established the United States as a world leader. Each of the one hour programs in this remarkable series focuses on an industry which played a unique role in America's rise to world economic dominance. The stories of changing fortunes in the steel, coal, brewing, ship building and textile industries reveal much about our country's past and present. Empires of Industry would be useful for classes on American History, History of Science and Technology, Economics and American Culture. It is appropriate for middle school and high school.


Andrew Carnegie and the Age of Steel chronicles the rise of the iron and steel industries in the United States and the personal ascent of immigrant Andrew Carnegie, whose steel company would one day make him the richest man in America. The American iron, and later steel, industries were the backbone of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, supplying the material that would enable the growth of railroads, skyscrapers, war machines and a host of other industries. It is the story of the rise of big industry in the United States, in all its glory, and all its shame. While the steel industry would make men such as Andrew Carnegie wealthy beyond imagination, it would also cripple, maim, and kill those who toiled to keep the furnaces blasting and the steel rolling.

Vocabulary

• affable
• affinity
• alchemy
• charisma
• circumvent
• commodities
• consummated
• diminutive
• dire
• fervor
• gauntlet
• inherently
• logistics
• manifest destiny
• molten
• munitions
• scab
• slag
• smelting
• utopia

Discussion Questions

1. To some people, Andrew Carnegie was the manifestation of the “American dream.” Do you agree or disagree?

2. The United States' iron and steel industries helped make the United States the most powerful nation in the world. What was the role of these industries in the U.S.' ascent to world power?

3. Molten iron is called “pig iron.” How did it get this nickname? How does this nickname reflect the lives and times of the workers who coined it?

4. Many early iron workers, as in other early industries, were indentured servants. What is an indentured servant? How did indentured servants contribute to the growth of both colonial America and the United States?

5. How did the iron industry contribute to the American Revolution and American independence?

6. What is the “hot blast” process and how did it change the iron industry?

7. What is the “Bessemer” process and how is it responsible for the birth and growth of the steel industry?

8. Steel is known as the “beast of American industry.” What is meant by this phrase and why is the steel industry associated with it?

9. Working in the steel mills was one of the most dangerous jobs in industry. What were some of the dangers to steel workers? Why would workers continue to work in so dangerous an environment?

10. How did the invention and mass production of the automobile influence the steel industry?

11. How has foreign competition changed the way America conducts business?

Extended Activities

1. Create a poster that illustrates the process of turning ore into iron in the early iron industry. Then illustrate how the advances in technology altered the process.

2. Imagine that you are a journalist during the Homestead Strike of the 1880s. Write an editorial in which you recount the events of the strike and give your views on both the workers' and owners' positions.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23295 in DVD
• Brand: A&E
• Released on: 2005-12-27
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 50 minutes

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Customer Reviews

Not Closed captioned
This was supposed to be closed captioned and it was not -- It is hardly worth the bother to send it back and try to get the correct one.

It is however, a good presentation of the rise of the steel industry, I use it in my classroom.

Steel, Steel, and Mo' Steel!
Instead of being named "AC and the Age of Steel," it should have been named "The Age of Steel with Andrew Carnegie." This documentary is more about steel than this famous rich guy. They don't even bring up Carnegie until one-fifth of the way into the work. They show about two photos of him and that's all. You never learn if he went to college, what charities he supported, or how he died. They show a photo of Carnegie with a man I believe to be Booker T. Washington. Did Carnegie support Black colleges or other African-American causes of the time? This work never answers: all it does is focus on steel. I can't believe that the History Channel actually thought a marketable number of people would want to know about that. Leave that boring stuff in an engineering classroom! I liked that the interviewees came from a diverse range of universities in the South and North. I hate that I'm buying into ideas that only "great men" are worthy of historical works. But still, yawn! I was left very disappointed.