Progress and Poverty

Why does grinding poverty deepen in step with industrial wealth? Henry George set out to answer that paradox in 1879, and the book that resulted became one of the best selling works of economics of its century. George argues that the value created by a growing society flows not to workers or businesses but to those who own land, whose rents rise simply because others build and labor around them. His remedy, a single tax on the value of land, aimed to fund government while ending speculation and freeing wages. Written in clear, forceful prose that reached ordinary readers, it launched a worldwide reform movement and still shapes debates over land, rent, and inequality. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.