Henry George Popular Books
Henry George Biography & Facts
Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the economic philosophy known as Georgism, the belief that people should own the value they produce themselves, but that the economic value of land (including natural resources) should belong equally to all members of society. George famously argued that a single tax on land values would create a more productive and just society. His most famous work, Progress and Poverty (1879), sold millions of copies worldwide. The treatise investigates the paradox of increasing inequality and poverty amid economic and technological progress, the business cycle with its cyclic nature of industrialized economies, and the use of rent capture such as land value taxation and other anti-monopoly reforms as a remedy for these and other social problems. Other works by George defended free trade, the secret ballot, free (at marginal cost) public utilities/transportation provided by the capture of their resulting land rent uplift, Pigouvian taxation, and public ownership of other natural monopolies. George was a journalist for many years, and the popularity of his writing and speeches brought him to run for election as Mayor of New York City in 1886. As the United Labor Party nominee in 1886 and in 1897 as the Jefferson Democracy Party nominee, he received 31 percent and 4 percent of the vote respectively and finished ahead of former New York State Assembly minority leader Theodore Roosevelt in the first race. After his death during the second campaign, his ideas were carried forward by organizations and political leaders through the United States and other Anglophone countries. The mid-20th century labor economist and journalist George Soule wrote that George was by far "the most famous American economic writer" and "author of a book which probably had a larger world-wide circulation than any other work on economics ever written." Personal life George was born in Philadelphia to a lower-middle-class family, the second of ten children of Richard S. H. George and Catharine Pratt George (née Vallance). His father was a publisher of religious texts and a devout Episcopalian, and he sent George to the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. George chafed at his religious upbringing and left the academy without graduating. Instead he convinced his father to hire a tutor and supplemented this with avid reading and attending lectures at the Franklin Institute. His formal education ended at age 14, and he went to sea as a foremast boy at age 15 in April 1855 on the Hindoo, bound for Melbourne and Calcutta. He ended up in the American West in 1858 and briefly considered prospecting for gold but instead started work the same year in San Francisco as a type setter. In California, George fell in love with Annie Corsina Fox from Sydney, Australia. They met on her seventeenth birthday on October 12, 1860. She had been orphaned and was living with an uncle. The uncle, a prosperous, strong-minded man, was opposed to his niece's impoverished suitor. But the couple, defying him, eloped and married on December 3, 1861, with Henry dressed in a borrowed suit and Annie bringing only a packet of books. The marriage was a happy one, and four children were born to them. On November 3, 1862, Annie gave birth to Henry George Jr. (1862–1916), a future United States Representative from New York. Early on, even with the birth of future sculptor Richard F. George (1865–1912), the family was near starvation. George's other two children were both daughters. The first was Jennie George, (c. 1867–1897), later to become Jennie George Atkinson. George's other daughter was Anna Angela George (1878-1947), who would become mother of both future dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille and future actress Peggy George, who was born Margaret George de Mille. Following the birth of his second child, George had no work and no money and had to beg for food. As he approached the first well-dressed stranger he saw in the street, George, normally a lawful man, decided to rob him if he was unwilling to help. Fortunately, the man took pity on him and gave him five dollars. George was raised as an Episcopalian, but he believed in "deistic humanitarianism". His wife Annie was Irish Catholic, but Henry George Jr. wrote that the children were mainly influenced by Henry George's deism and humanism. Career in journalism After deciding against gold mining in British Columbia, George was hired as a printer for the newly created San Francisco Times. He was able to immediately submit editorials for publication, including the popular What the Railroads Will Bring Us (1868), which remained required reading in California schools for decades. George climbed the ranks of the Times, eventually becoming managing editor in the summer of 1867. George's first nationally prominent writing was his 1869 essay The Chinese in California, in which he wrote that Chinese immigration should be ended before Chinese immigrants overrun the western United States.: 27 George worked for several papers, including four years (1871–1875) as editor of his own newspaper, the San Francisco Daily Evening Post, and for a time running the Reporter, a Democratic anti-monopoly publication. George experienced four tough years of trying to keep his newspaper afloat and was eventually forced to go to the streets to beg. The George family struggled, but George's improving reputation and involvement in the newspaper industry lifted them from poverty. Political and economic philosophy George began as a Lincoln Republican, then eventually became a Democrat. He was a strong critic of railroad and mining interests, corrupt politicians, land speculators, and labor contractors. He first articulated his views in an 1868 article entitled "What the Railroad Will Bring Us." George argued that the boom in railroad construction would benefit only the lucky few who owned interests in the railroads and other related enterprises, while throwing the greater part of the population into abject poverty. This had led to him earning the enmity of the Central Pacific Railroad's executives, who helped defeat his bid for election to the California State Assembly. One day in 1871 George went for a horseback ride and stopped to rest while overlooking San Francisco Bay. He later wrote of the revelation that he had: I asked a passing teamster, for want of something better to say, what land was worth there. He pointed to some cows grazing so far off that they looked like mice, and said, "I don't know exactly, but there is a man over there who will sell some land for a thousand dollars an acre." Like a flash it came over me that there was the reason of advancing poverty with advancing wealth. With the growth of population, land grows in value, and the men who work it must pay more f.... Discover the Henry George popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Henry George books.
Best Seller Henry George Books of 2024
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The Other Queen
Philippa GregoryFrom #1 New York Times bestselling author and “queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregorya dazzling new novel about the intriguing, romantic, and maddening Mary, Queen of...
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The Boy Who Changed the World
Andy AndrewsDid you know that what you do today can change the world forever?The Boy Who Changed the World opens with a young Norman Borlaug playing in his family’s cornfields with his sisters...
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Once in a Great City
David Maraniss“A fascinating political, racial, economic, and cultural tapestry” (Detroit Free Press), Once in a Great City is a tour de force from David Maraniss about the quintessential Americ...
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The Shadowed Land
Signe PikeKing Arthur and his contemporaries are boldly reimagined in this “mystical, epic, and captivating” (Hazel Gaynor, New York Times bestselling author) series that resurrects the real...
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The Sweetest Thing
Cathy WoodmanThe third novel in Cathy Woodman's hugely popular Talyton St George series.Each book in the Talyton St George series can be read as a standalone novel, but when Cathy first had the...
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Alexander Hamilton and the Battle of Yorktown, October 1781
Phillip Thomas TuckerDiscover the littleknown role Alexander Hamilton played in the decisive battle of the American Revolution: Yorktown.Alexander Hamilton and the Battle of Yorktown, October 1781 is t...
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Behind the Palace Doors
Michael FarquharSpanning 500 years of British history, a revealing look at the secret lives of some great (and notsogreat) Britons, courtesy of one of the world’s most engaging royal historians ...
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The Wobbit
The Harvard LampoonFrom the authors of the New York Times bestselling parody The Hunger Pains, this fresh take on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is a hilarious sendup of Middleearth, publishing just in ...
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Iron, Fire and Ice
Ed WestHave you read everything George R.R. Martin has every written? Do you know what in Game of Thrones is based in real history?A young pretender raises an army to take the throne. Lea...
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The Book of Virtues
William J. BennettResponsibility. Courage. Compassion. Honesty. Friendship. Persistence. Faith. Everyone recognizes these traits as essentials of good character. In order for our children to develop...
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The Last Queen
Clive IrvingA timely and revelatory new biography of Queen Elizabeth (and her family) exploring how the Windsors have evolved and thrived, as the modern world has changed around them. ...
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The Last Castle
Denise KiernanA New York Times bestseller with an "engaging narrative and array of detail” (The Wall Street Journal), the “intimate and sweeping” (Raleigh News & Observer) untold, true story...
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My Kingdom for a Horse
Ed WestFrom William Shakespeare's series of history dramas to Sir Walter Scott and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, not to mention the smashhit TV show Game of Thrones, the Br...
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The Boleyn Inheritance
Philippa GregoryFrom “the queen of royal fiction” (USA TODAY) comes this New York Times bestseller featuring three very different women whose fates are each bound by a bloody curse: the legacy of ...
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The British Are Coming
Rick AtkinsonWinner of the George Washington PrizeWinner of the Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American HistoryWinner of the Excellence in American History Book AwardWinner of the Fr...
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The Works of Henry Fielding
Henry FieldingToo long the Tragick Muse hath aw’d the stage, And frighten’d wives and children with her rage, Too long Drawcansir roars, Parthenope weeps, While ev’ry lady cries, and critick sle...
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The Forgotten Kingdom
Signe PikeFrom the author of The Lost Queen, hailed as “Outlander meets Camelot” (Kirsty Logan, the author of The Gloaming) and “The Mists of Avalon for a new generation” (Linnea Hartsuyker,...
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The Hunger Pains
The Harvard LampoonThe hilarious instant New York Times bestseller, The Hunger Pains is a loving parody of the dystopian YA novel and film, The Hunger Games.Winning means wealth, fame, and a life of ...
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Progress and Poverty Centenary Edition
Henry GeorgeAn Inquiry Into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want With Increase of Wealth...the RemedyHenry George believed that "(t)he people must think because the peop...
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Desperate Sons
Les Standiford“Popular history in its most vital and accessible form. Standiford has recovered the mentality of America’s first group of young radicals, the Sons of Liberty, and tells their stor...
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Charles I
Mark KishlanskyThe tragedy of Charles I dominates one of the most strange and painful periods in British history as the whole island tore itself apart over a deadly, entangled series of religious...
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Valley Forge
Bob Drury & Tom ClavinThe #1 New York Times bestselling authors of The Heart of Everything That Is return with “a thorough, nuanced, and enthralling account” (The Wall Street Journal) about one of the m...
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Never Surrender
John Kelly“WWII scholar John Kelly triumphs again” (Vanity Fair) in this remarkably vivid account of a key moment in Western history: The critical six months in 1940 when Winston Churchill d...
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The Best American Humorous Short Stories
Various ArtistsTable of Contents: The Little Frenchman and His Water Lots by George Pope MorrisThe Angel of the Odd by Edgar Allan PoeThe Schoolmaster's Progress by Caroline M.S. KirklandTh...
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The Conservative Mind
Russell Kirk"It is inconceivable even to imagine, let alone hope for, a dominant conservative movement in America without Kirk's labor." WILLIAM F BUCKLEY "A profound critique of co...
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The Tapestry
Nancy BilyeauThe next pageturner in the awardwinning Joanna Stafford series takes place in the heart of the Tudor court, as she risks everything to defy the most powerful men of her era.Henry V...
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Heroes
Paul JohnsonA galaxy of legendary figures from the annals of Western historyIn this enlightening and entertaining work, Paul Johnson, the bestselling author of Intellectuals and Creators, appr...
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The Freemasons
Jasper RidleyWhat did Mozart and Bach, Oscar Wilde and Anthony Trollope, George Washington and Frederick the Great, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt have in common? They were all Fre...
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The Sickness Unto Death
Søren Kierkegaard & Alastair HannayOne of the most remarkable philosophical works of the nineteenth century, The Sickness Unto Death is also famed for the depth and acuity of its modern psychological insights. Writi...
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Destiny and Power
Jon Meacham#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In this brilliant biography, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham chronicles the life of George Herbert Walker Bush.NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BES...
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Richard III
William ShakespeareThe authoritative edition of Richard III from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.In Richard III, Shakes...
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A Farewell to Arms
Ernest HemingwayThe definitive edition of the classic novel of love during wartime, featuring all of the alternate endings: “Fascinating…serves as an artifact of a bygone craft, with handwritten n...
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Evil Twins
John GlattThey give a whole new meaning to the phrase "Dead Ringers"Identical twins, with the exact same genetic information, are a fascinating study in human behavior. It is a known fact th...
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George VI
Philip ZieglerWritten by Philip Ziegler, one of Britain's most celebrated biographers, George VI is part of the Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers in a co...
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Bubble in the Sun
Christopher KnowltonChristopher Knowlton, author of Cattle Kingdom and former Fortune writer, takes an indepth look at the spectacular Florida land boom of the 1920s and shows how it led directly to t...
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The Crown
Nancy BilyeauAn astonishing debut in historical fiction, hailed as “part The Da Vinci Code, part The Other Boleyn Girl,” (Woman’s Day), The Crown follows one nun’s dangerous quest to find an an...
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American Canopy
Eric RutkowThis fascinating and groundbreaking work tells the remarkable story of the relationship between Americans and their trees across the entire span of our nation’s history. Like many ...
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Henry Knox
Mark PulsMark Puls delivers a compelling portrait of the Revolutionary War general who played a key role in all of George Washington's battles.During the Siege of Boston, Henry Knox's amazi...
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A Farewell to Arms
Ernest HemingwayThe best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautif...
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Behind the Throne
Adrian TinniswoodAn "enchanting" upstairs/downstairs history of the British royal court, from the Middle Ages to the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (Wall Street Journal). Monarchs: they're just like u...
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The Lost Queen
Signe Pike“Outlander meets Camelot” (Kirsty Logan, author of The Gracekeepers) in the first book of an exciting historical series that reveals the untold story of Languoretha powerful and, u...