“Fond of saying that ‘the man who dies rich dies disgraced’, Carnegie was the first great rags-to-riches American philanthropist – bluff, optimistic, intuitive and, as he got older and richer, increasingly sanctimonious. Born in 1835, he was the son of a jobbing weaver from Dunfermline who was reduced to poverty when hand-looms were supplanted by steam-powered ones. His mother, a proud and cultured woman, resorted to selling groceries and mending shoes to keep the family clothed and fed.”