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Columbia History of Urban Life
Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality: Progress and Poverty in the Gilded Age
America's remarkable explosion of industrial output and national wealth at the end of the nineteenth century was matched by a troubling rise in poverty and worker unrest. As politicians and intellectuals fought over the causes of this crisis, Henry George (1839–1897) published a radical critique of laissez-faire capitalism and its threat to the nation's republican traditions. Progress and Poverty (1879), which became a surprise best-seller, offered a provocative solution for preserving these traditions while preventing the amassing of wealth in the hands of the few: a single tax on land values. George's writings and years of social activism almost won him the mayor's seat in New York City in 1886. Though he lost the election, his ideas proved instrumental to shaping a popular progressivism that remains essential to tackling inequality today.
Edward T. O'Donnell's exploration of George's life and times merges labor, ethnic, intellectual, and political history to illuminate the early militant labor movement in New York during the Gilded Age. He locates in George's rise to prominence the beginning of a larger effort by American workers to regain control of the workplace and obtain economic security and opportunity. The Gilded Age was the first but by no means the last era in which Americans confronted the mixed outcomes of modern capitalism. George's accessible, forward-thinking ideas on democracy, equality, and freedom have tremendous value for contemporary debates over the future of unions, corporate power, Wall Street recklessness, government regulation, and political polarization.
378 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 2, 2015
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198 people want to read
About the author
Edward T. O'Donnell
30 books17 followersEdward T. O’Donnell is an Associate Professor of History at Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Holy Cross College and his Ph.D. in American History from Columbia University.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 25, 2017
I read this book because I was watching a Teaching Company class, "America in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era", taught by this author. The class is quite good and I would recommend it. This book looks a little more closely at one person in order to illustrate a time period, so I suppose the book would be considered a social biography. I actually hadn't heard of Henry George before, but he apparently had a deep influence, mainly through his book "Progress and Poverty" (published in 1879), on a a lot of movers and shakers who came after him (Leo Tolstoy, Sun Yat Sen, George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair, John Dewey, Clarence Darrow, and many others, which the author notes in the book's final chapter). The book was interesting and certainly added to my understanding of Prof. O'Donnell's course, but there were parts of the book toward the end when the detail was more than I wanted to know and I had to really force myself to pay attention. In particular, a lot of facts are given about Henry George's failed run for mayor of New York in 1886. (Interestingly, another failed candidate in that race was Teddy Roosevelt.) I kind of got bogged down in all of that detail, although I did see, in the end, how it illustrated the difficulty labor had in coming together and in trying to challenge the entrenched moneyed interests, which included not only big business, newspapers, and law enforcement, but also the Catholic Church. Professor O'Donnell notes a quote attributed to Mark Twain: "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme." I think that is the reason I was interested in his course and in this book: the sense that we have been here before, and what did we do about it then? On the author's website, https://www.edwardtodonnell.com/home.... , I found a link to a talk he gave about this book. The talk summarizes the book far better than I could and is well worth a listen, even if you don't intend to read the book:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?328143-1...
A key idea I took away from the book is that there has always been, in the history of the USA, a tension between keeping the government very small to encourage individualism and having a stronger government play a role in seeing to the "common good". It seems to me we are still trying to sort that out. Here is the author's comment about that play of ideas, from pages 273-274:
"In the face of profound challenges wrought by the advent of industrial capitalism, American political culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries shifted dramatically away from a longstanding republican commitment to laissez-faire economics, private property absolutism, and minimalist government and toward a new vision of republican society that recast the state as the vital guarantor of liberty and equality, rather than a threat to them. This new ethos of progressivism placed a much greater value on protecting and enhancing the common good and the rights of "the people" as opposed to the rights of individuals. Private property rights were considered important, but not wholly sacrosanct. It envisioned the state not merely as a necessary evil to be kept as small and weak as possible, but rather as an essential, neutral arbitrator between competing interests (most especially labor and capital), as an agent of positive social change, and as a vital guarantor of liberty and equality---all in the service of avoiding class conflict. Progressivism in the United States was a far cry from European socialism, but it also was a far cry from laissez-fairism and social Darwinism."
http://www.c-span.org/video/?328143-1...
A key idea I took away from the book is that there has always been, in the history of the USA, a tension between keeping the government very small to encourage individualism and having a stronger government play a role in seeing to the "common good". It seems to me we are still trying to sort that out. Here is the author's comment about that play of ideas, from pages 273-274:
"In the face of profound challenges wrought by the advent of industrial capitalism, American political culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries shifted dramatically away from a longstanding republican commitment to laissez-faire economics, private property absolutism, and minimalist government and toward a new vision of republican society that recast the state as the vital guarantor of liberty and equality, rather than a threat to them. This new ethos of progressivism placed a much greater value on protecting and enhancing the common good and the rights of "the people" as opposed to the rights of individuals. Private property rights were considered important, but not wholly sacrosanct. It envisioned the state not merely as a necessary evil to be kept as small and weak as possible, but rather as an essential, neutral arbitrator between competing interests (most especially labor and capital), as an agent of positive social change, and as a vital guarantor of liberty and equality---all in the service of avoiding class conflict. Progressivism in the United States was a far cry from European socialism, but it also was a far cry from laissez-fairism and social Darwinism."
April 11, 2016
This book is at its best when it tries to be a nuanced look at the life of Henry George, the famous self-taught economist whose 1879 book Progress and Poverty redefined economic reform across the Western world. Unfortunately, however, almost half the book is taken up with an in depth analysis of Irish and labor politics in New York City in the 1880s. Although George did play an outsized role in these struggles, their story is not always his.
George was born to a middle class Customs House clerk and religious publisher in Philadelphia in 1839. He himself went to sea before trotting across the U.S. as an itinerant printer. He braved poverty with a growing family and, through force of will, gradually educated himself, although he always recognized both the benefits and problems with his oft-wandering ideas. A meeting with James McClatchy, the Radical Republican editor of the Sacramento Bee, allowed him to finally develop as an official journalist and editorialist. He soon morphed into a Democrat (and patronage job, gas meter inspector, that allowed him time to write), with Jacksonian critiques of railroads and, especially, “land monopoly" As this book's author shows, George’s critique of land ownership not only came out of insights from the California land boom, but out of an 1870 trip to New York City, where its overcrowding and entrenched poverty thoroughly shocked him, and led eventually to his 1879 masterwork. In Progress in Poverty, George argued that increasing inequality was a danger that threatened civilization, and that could such inequality only be remedied with high taxes on land values.
Despite George’s evangelical leanings, his marriage to a Catholic woman and his sympathy for the plight of the Irish farmer class, led him to become an Irish working class hero. The “Fenians” or Irish radicals living in New York, such as John Devoy and Michael Davitt, had already organized an Irish National Land League to fight for “peasant proprietary," and George’s book offered a welcome justification of their concerns. (Although an attempt in 1881 to start a rent “boycott,” the term first used in reference to a hated British landlord of the time, led to the fracture of the movement.) Patrick Ford, a former writer on the abolitionist Liberator, as editor of the New York Irish World also pushed George’s critiques. Terence Powderly, of the Knights of Labor, endorsed the book and its importance both for Irish nationalism and workers' movements in the U.S. “Boycotts” soon became common tools to fight non-union shops in the cities, as well as rent-racking landlords in the country.
When a Union Labor Party was formed in 1886 in New York, George became its obvious candidate for mayor. In a tight-fought campaign he lost to reform Democrat Abraham Hewitt (but he did beat the the young Republican candidate Teddy Roosevelt). George therefore never acquired the political power he desired, but his ideas soon spread to thousands and millions of others. This book's list of the people influenced by George is truly amazing (from Eugene Debs, to John Dewey, to Clarence Darrow, to Ida Tarbell, etc. etc.)
Despite this book's virtues, its attempts to shoe-horn George’s obsession with land monopoly into a reflection of modern concerns about income inequality feels false and forced. Likewise, the in-depth look at tiny internal labor union battles feels like those older histories which lamented every lost socialist labor local as the end of a utopia in miniature. Still, for a modern take on this extremely important individual, and his environment, this book is a good place to start.
George was born to a middle class Customs House clerk and religious publisher in Philadelphia in 1839. He himself went to sea before trotting across the U.S. as an itinerant printer. He braved poverty with a growing family and, through force of will, gradually educated himself, although he always recognized both the benefits and problems with his oft-wandering ideas. A meeting with James McClatchy, the Radical Republican editor of the Sacramento Bee, allowed him to finally develop as an official journalist and editorialist. He soon morphed into a Democrat (and patronage job, gas meter inspector, that allowed him time to write), with Jacksonian critiques of railroads and, especially, “land monopoly" As this book's author shows, George’s critique of land ownership not only came out of insights from the California land boom, but out of an 1870 trip to New York City, where its overcrowding and entrenched poverty thoroughly shocked him, and led eventually to his 1879 masterwork. In Progress in Poverty, George argued that increasing inequality was a danger that threatened civilization, and that could such inequality only be remedied with high taxes on land values.
Despite George’s evangelical leanings, his marriage to a Catholic woman and his sympathy for the plight of the Irish farmer class, led him to become an Irish working class hero. The “Fenians” or Irish radicals living in New York, such as John Devoy and Michael Davitt, had already organized an Irish National Land League to fight for “peasant proprietary," and George’s book offered a welcome justification of their concerns. (Although an attempt in 1881 to start a rent “boycott,” the term first used in reference to a hated British landlord of the time, led to the fracture of the movement.) Patrick Ford, a former writer on the abolitionist Liberator, as editor of the New York Irish World also pushed George’s critiques. Terence Powderly, of the Knights of Labor, endorsed the book and its importance both for Irish nationalism and workers' movements in the U.S. “Boycotts” soon became common tools to fight non-union shops in the cities, as well as rent-racking landlords in the country.
When a Union Labor Party was formed in 1886 in New York, George became its obvious candidate for mayor. In a tight-fought campaign he lost to reform Democrat Abraham Hewitt (but he did beat the the young Republican candidate Teddy Roosevelt). George therefore never acquired the political power he desired, but his ideas soon spread to thousands and millions of others. This book's list of the people influenced by George is truly amazing (from Eugene Debs, to John Dewey, to Clarence Darrow, to Ida Tarbell, etc. etc.)
Despite this book's virtues, its attempts to shoe-horn George’s obsession with land monopoly into a reflection of modern concerns about income inequality feels false and forced. Likewise, the in-depth look at tiny internal labor union battles feels like those older histories which lamented every lost socialist labor local as the end of a utopia in miniature. Still, for a modern take on this extremely important individual, and his environment, this book is a good place to start.
September 16, 2021
This book focuses on the era of American history -- from the Civil War through the 1930s -- in which I have always been most interested, as it is a time that effectively established the "framework" of issues (and the contexts within which we view and understand those issues) with which we are still wrestling: economic disparity, racial injustice, and the rise of big money and its ownership of the political process.
Professor O'Donnell, who is also featured in a new course by the Teaching Company covering this same period, does a fine job of illustrating the leading issues of the day through the prism of Henry George's involvement in society and politics.
While this is not a full biography of Henry George -- although it is a form of political biography concerning his mature years and his efforts to promote a more equal society -- it really does well illuminate a number of features of the time that still strike me as very familiar for our own day. One of the most striking of these is how essentially conservative the typical American is, not in the ideological sense but, rather, in the degree to which we as a people shun "radical" or "violently reactive" politics. For example, even though the state of working people (rural as well as urban) was quite dire through these years, the vast majority of those who organized into unions or associations of various sorts worked to "reform" the system rather than to "change and replace it." Moreover, they consistently demonstrated their belief that if just enough of them backed the "right person" -- who could give voice to their grievances -- then the government would respond to restore justice and equity.
Although he is best remembered for his writings today, especially the still-readable and abundantly relevant "Progress and Poverty," he was also an able speaker who possessed the rare gift of translating what could be complex matters into understandable phrases.
I recommend this book to anyone who better wishes to understand the middle and latter portions of the 19th century in the United States. In reading it you will also encounter one of America's genuine ethical heroes!
Professor O'Donnell, who is also featured in a new course by the Teaching Company covering this same period, does a fine job of illustrating the leading issues of the day through the prism of Henry George's involvement in society and politics.
While this is not a full biography of Henry George -- although it is a form of political biography concerning his mature years and his efforts to promote a more equal society -- it really does well illuminate a number of features of the time that still strike me as very familiar for our own day. One of the most striking of these is how essentially conservative the typical American is, not in the ideological sense but, rather, in the degree to which we as a people shun "radical" or "violently reactive" politics. For example, even though the state of working people (rural as well as urban) was quite dire through these years, the vast majority of those who organized into unions or associations of various sorts worked to "reform" the system rather than to "change and replace it." Moreover, they consistently demonstrated their belief that if just enough of them backed the "right person" -- who could give voice to their grievances -- then the government would respond to restore justice and equity.
Although he is best remembered for his writings today, especially the still-readable and abundantly relevant "Progress and Poverty," he was also an able speaker who possessed the rare gift of translating what could be complex matters into understandable phrases.
I recommend this book to anyone who better wishes to understand the middle and latter portions of the 19th century in the United States. In reading it you will also encounter one of America's genuine ethical heroes!
May 29, 2018
A informative biography of a forgotten man who tried to end the gilded age. Worth reading to find out that things stay the same because those with the power do not want to lose it.
August 29, 2023
In 1886, a few days after the Statue of Liberty was dedicated, Henry George stunned New York City, and the nation, by coming in a strong second in the city’s mayoral election as a third-party labor candidate. This book is a social biography of George and traces the formative events that led him from a childhood in Philadelphia, to entrepreneurship in California, and then maturity in New York. He developed an unique philosophy of political economy that he popularized with the publishing of Progress and Poverty in 1879.
George championed “working-class republicanism,” envisioning an egalitarian society, facilitated by government action, that would balance the struggle between labor and capital. His political economy was predicated on the “single tax,” a tax on an assessed value of real property that would undermine monopoly interests. George was an evangelical Christian, and many of his ideas formed the basis of the social gospel movement.
George championed “working-class republicanism,” envisioning an egalitarian society, facilitated by government action, that would balance the struggle between labor and capital. His political economy was predicated on the “single tax,” a tax on an assessed value of real property that would undermine monopoly interests. George was an evangelical Christian, and many of his ideas formed the basis of the social gospel movement.
April 13, 2020
Really quite charming history using the biography of Henry George to discuss both George's ideas and labor politics in the 1870s/1880s. A lot here to think about with regards to coalition building and radicalism vs reformism. Eminently more readable than these kinds of history books tend to be.
One key personal takeaway is that the seminal 1986 animated film An American Tail actually contained a pretty keen understanding of 1880s Tammany Hall corruption and radical Irish emigrant populist politics.
One key personal takeaway is that the seminal 1986 animated film An American Tail actually contained a pretty keen understanding of 1880s Tammany Hall corruption and radical Irish emigrant populist politics.
April 6, 2025
Interesting discussion of George, focussing on his social activism and his social environment, rather than his ideas
February 1, 2024
Great resource on the 1886 mayoral campaign and George's turn away from labor politics.
October 17, 2025
STEAL LAND FROM THE RICH!!!!!!!!!! ABOLISH LANDLORISM!!!!!!!!!
edit: alright, i reread this book to write a paper on it and it's not that bad. henry george, what a fella.
edit: alright, i reread this book to write a paper on it and it's not that bad. henry george, what a fella.
August 27, 2015
This is not a full biography per se of the economist/social philosopher Henry George, but rather a biography that places his search for a solution to the immense problem of inequality in a wealthy capitalist society in the context of the labor and reform movements of the late 19th century. As presented here, it's not that compelling of a story, but the problems that George and others grappled with were, and, unfortunately, still are compelling, and O'Donnell does an admirable job of tracing George's thinking from its roots in the individualist republicanism of early 19th century America through the recognition that only through political action (government as regulator and equalizer) could the poverty created by industrial capitalism be tempered, and how George's movement was in some ways doomed to fail by its unwillingness to tolerate the possibility that capitalism itself might be part of the problem.
August 23, 2015
Adding to the book jacket description: We learn about George's interaction with the political climate and events of his time. Few quotes and explanations of his theories are provided; primary sources are where I am headed next.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews