Meet You in Hell by Les Standiford has been on my want-to-read-someday book list since 2007 when I read his book Last Train to Paradise about the railroad to Key West.  This seemed like a good year to read it since we are currently studying modern times (TOG Year 4 for those who homeschool). 

Meet You in Hell is the story of two men, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, who rose from the depths of poverty to make their millions in the steel industry and become two of the wealthiest men in American history.  It’s a brief overview of the rise and fall of the Frick/Carnegie partnership beginning with Frick’s company supplying coke for Carengie’s steel plants followed by Carnegie taking over Frick’s coke company and Frick becoming the manager of all of Carnegie’s interests to the demise of their partnership. 

This is also the story of relations between unions and management at the beginning of the Industrial Age with the climax of this portion of the story being the Homestead Strike.  Here one begins to understand the ruthlessness with which Carnegie and Frick cut costs to save the bottom line many times at the expense of the men in the trenches on whose backs they were making their millions. 

For those who are wondering about the title of the book.  On his death bed, Carnegie tries to make amends with Frick who replied, “Tell him I’ll see him in hell, where we are both going.”  They died within a few months of each other presumably having never reconciled. 

A COUPLE PERSONAL POINTS:

While visiting New York City in December, I had hoped to visit the The Frick Mansion located near Central Park.  Unfortunately, it didn’t fit into our schedule on this trip so I’ll have to plan another trip!

You can’t believe how many people stopped in their tracks when they saw the title of the book I was reading!  It is a catchy title which was a conversation starter on numerous occasions.