Long before public libraries became familiar fixtures in towns and cities, access to books was often limited by money, geography or social standing. For many people, reading remained a privilege rather than an everyday opportunity. The growth of free libraries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries changed that landscape, and few individuals had a greater influence on that transformation than Andrew Carnegie. The Scottish-born industrialist, who arrived in the United States as a child immigrant, devoted a large share of his fortune to expanding public access to knowledge.
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