In Conversation With  ·  Museum of Minds
HG–1839–2026  ·  Counting House

Henry
George

1839  —  1897
Historical Archive  ·  Portrait Study
Henry George
Henry George
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1839  ·  New York City, 1897

The man who saw the railroad make landlords rich while making workers poorer — and asked why. Progress and Poverty (1879) became one of the best-selling economics books of the 19th century. His answer was land rent. His prescription was the single tax.

He ran for mayor of New York in 1886 and nearly won. He finished second, ahead of the Republican candidate — a young Theodore Roosevelt. He is the most important American economic reformer you've never heard of.

Consultation

Why poverty and
progress coexist.

George speaks from 1,400+ chunks across two works — Progress and Poverty (1879) and Protection or Free Trade (1886).

His discourse holds Smith's Wealth of Nations and Marx's Das Kapital — the two frameworks he is both building on and arguing with.

Ask him about the single tax and whether it would actually work. Ask him about the housing crisis in 2026. Ask him why he finished second running for mayor of New York. Ask him what the difference between his remedy and socialism actually is.

Progress and PovertyLand Value TaxSingle TaxHousing CrisisGeorge vs. MarxLand MonopolyFree Trade19th-Century Reform
The great cause of inequality in the distribution of wealth is inequality in the ownership of land.
Progress and Poverty  ·  Book VII  ·  1879

Drawn From the Corpus