Eminent Pittsburghers: Profiles of the City's Founding Industrialists by William S. Dietrich II

Abstract

How often in the history of writing history has a wealthy industrialist and philanthropist written about the lives of other wealthy industrialists-turnedphilanthropists? That is precisely what we have in William dietrich's Eminent Pittsburghers. It is estimated that the author of this book gave $265 million to Carnegie Mellon University and another $125 million to the University of Pittsburgh. It is fair to say that dietrich knows his subject. Not surprisingly, the author harbors a celebratory attitude toward entrepreneurial industrialism and, of course, capitalism. To his credit, however, dietrich does not hesitate to cite the obvious weaknesses of his fellow Pittsburghers, stories known to almost anyone who has studied American history. The biographical profiles presented are very readable. The writing might be described as breezy and chatty.