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Land and Liberty is not just the best book ever written about Henry George's ideas and their unappreciated influence on politicians, policy makers, and moral philosophers over the past century and more. Christopher England has produced one of those rare works of scholarship that ought to transform the way we understand the history of economic thought and social movements in the United States and elsewhere in the industrial world.
Through a careful reading of Henry George in his American and international context, Christopher England provides a missing chapter that touches on the urban, economic, intellectual, social, and political. He argues for George as the author of a powerful national, international, and multiracial movement for reform, which provided an array of answers to elitism and monopoly that are still relevant today.
There has never been an American intellectual (or politician) quite like Henry George. Christopher England not only contextualizes him—with all his virtues and flaws—within American liberalism but also reveals his often-hidden influence during his own lifetime and afterwards. A brilliant biography.
Land and Liberty reveals that Georgism was an urban, global, and unflinchingly modern movement that aimed to make liberalism more egalitarian and democratic, influencing generations of reformers even after the dream of the single tax had faded into obscurity. It will be required reading for anyone interested in the origins and effects of George's transformative worldview.
Henry George was an economic rock star who revolutionized how everyday people thought about the problems of wealth inequality and monopoly power that still plague capitalism today. With this fine book, we get not only the splendid biography George deserved but a compelling story of his forgotten role in the shaping of progressive thought.
This is the definitive account to date of the life and influence of perhaps the most important and under-appreciated economic thinker of all time. In this era of housing crises, network monopolies, and populist politics, Henry George's vision and example have never been more relevant. Those building the future are taking notice and should read this book with keen interest.
The popularity of Henry George's ideas about land, rent, and taxation in the late-nineteenth-century United States are often noted. England looks deeper, presenting a fascinating portrait of the Georgist movement that shows the many unappreciated ways it has shaped modern liberalism. No less, he demonstrates that Georgism still speaks to many of the problems afflicting capitalism in our own times, from inequality to rentier profit-making and ecological crisis. With this excellent book, the Georgists have finally found the talented, sympathetic-yet-critical historian they have long deserved.
Henry George made his famous critique of progress and poverty—of a civilization that piled up vast wealth for a few and spread poverty among the many—as a journalist living in Gilded Age San Francisco and New York City. England tells the story of Georgism as an egalitarian and democratic current of reform. He explores its global dimensions and, most significantly, covers much new ground in his treatment of the powerful impact the movement had on reform thought in the era of the First World War and beyond. This is a remarkable book that speaks to our present crisis of inequality.
Henry George made his famous critique of progress and poverty—of a civilization that piled up vast wealth for a few and spread poverty among the many—as a journalist living in Gilded Age San Francisco and New York City. England tells the story of Georgism as an egalitarian and democratic current of reform. He explores its global dimensions and, most significantly, covers much new ground in his treatment of the powerful impact the movement had on reform thought in the era of the First World War and beyond. This is a remarkable book that speaks to our present crisis of inequality.
About
Book Details
Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x 9
Pages
360
ISBN
9781421445403
Table of Contents
Introduction: Land and Liberty
1. Progress and Poverty: Land and Inequality in the Liberal Tradition
2. The Prophet of San Francisco: Confronting the Modern Metropolis
3. The Truths of Smith and Proudhon
Introduction: Land and Liberty
1. Progress and Poverty: Land and Inequality in the Liberal Tradition
2. The Prophet of San Francisco: Confronting the Modern Metropolis
3. The Truths of Smith and Proudhon: Crafting a New Liberalism
4. Labor Omnia Vincit: Crafting the Movement
5. The Democracy of Henry George: Joining the Democratic Mainstream
6. A Great and Glorious City: The Single Tax and Urban Reform in Ohio
7. Seeing the Cat: Ideology and Movement Culture
8. The Good Ship Earth: The Global Single Tax
9. Justice Not Charity: The Fels Fund and the Implementation of Land Value Taxation
10. Conservation for the People: Land Nationalization and Conservation
11. The Point of Least Resistance: Woodrow Wilson and the Single Tax Movement
12. The Will to Believe: The Decline of the Single Tax Movement and the Rise of Regional Planning
13. Back to the Land: The New Deal, Land Policy, and the Single Tax Movement
Conclusion: Henry George and the Promise of Liberalism
Acknowledgements
Note on Sources
Archival Collections
Notes
Index
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