Forbes.com readers and editors rank Andrew Carnegie as the fourth most influential businessman of all time. Historian David Surdam credits Andrew Carnegie for nothing less than being the principal figure behind America's transformation from a rural agricultural country into an industrial power. He helped make the U.S. the world's leading steel-producing country, partly by gauging efficiency of management with individualized records that compared cost to output. Carnegie's knack for novel techniques was so deep, according to the late Northwestern University economic historian Jonathan R.T. Hughes, that he once started a board meeting with the sentence, "Well, gentlemen, what shall we throw away this year?" Carnegie mistreated most of his workers, but thanks to their meager wages, steel was cheap and the country could afford to build its infrastructure. And by hiring thousands of middle managers, as well as professionals such as clerks and chemists who earned several times the salary of factory workers, Carnegie greatly expanded the American middle class. In 1901, J.P. Morgan paid $480 million for Carnegie Steel, making its founder the world's richest man. Carnegie eventually gave away almost his entire fortune, most famously to endow so-called Carnegie libraries. 　　　　

　　福布斯网站（Forbes.com）读者和编辑将安德鲁•卡内基列为有史以来第4位最有影响力的商人。
　　历史学家大卫•斯达姆（David Surdam）称安德鲁•卡内基为推动美国从一个农业国转变为工业强国的首要人物。他帮助美国成为了世界上领先的钢铁生产国，部分是通过利用比较产出和成本的详细记录来评判管理的效率。已故的西北大学经济历史学家乔纳森R.T. 休斯（Jonathan R.T. Hughes）说到，卡内基对新技术的偏好如此之深，以至于他曾经用这样的一句话作为董事会议的开场白：“好了，先生们，今年我们要扔掉些什么？”
　　卡内基对大部分工人并不慷慨，但正是由于他们少得可怜的工资，钢价才会低廉，国家才得以进行基础建设。
　　卡内基极大地造就了美国的中产阶级，由于他雇佣了成千上万的中层管理者、职业办事员和化学专家，他们的薪水是工人的几倍。 　
　　1901年，J P 摩根用4.8亿美元收购了卡内基钢铁公司，使这个卡内基公司的创始人成为世界首富。最终，卡内基捐出了几乎全部的财产，最著名的捐赠为卡内基图书馆。