As the world plunges head first into a New Gilded Age, we're taking a look back at the first Gilded Age.
One of the most impressive figures of this era was an immigrant textile worker who became the richest man in the world.
We're talking about the mighty Andrew Carnegie.
Andrew Carnegie was born in this small house in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1835.
Source: PBS
For generations the Carnegies had been master handloom weavers. But as the industrial revolution introduced steam-powered looms, the family business collapsed.
Source: PBS
Carnegie's family became so poor they'd go to sleep early to "forget the misery of hunger." He later wrote "It was burnt into my heart then that my father had to beg (for work). And then and there came the resolve that I would cure that when I got to be a man."
Source: PBS
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