Henry George

Born in Philadelphia in 1839, Henry George left school young, worked as a sailor and printer, and eventually built a career as a journalist in California. Those experiences gave his writing a direct, practical tone and kept his attention fixed on the gap between economic progress and everyday hardship.

His most famous book, Progress and Poverty (1879), made him an international figure. In it, he asked why poverty could persist alongside growing wealth and proposed his best-known answer: taxing the unearned value of land rather than labor and productive activity. The idea became closely associated with the Georgist movement and made him one of the most widely read social thinkers of the late 19th century.

George also entered public life directly, including a high-profile run for mayor of New York City in 1886. He continued writing and speaking on economics, politics, and social reform until his death in 1897, leaving behind a body of work that still attracts readers interested in fairness, cities, and how wealth is created.