Books

Rare first trade edition of George's groundbreaking treatise which sold several million copies, exceeding all other books sold in the United States except the Bible during the 1890s. Octavo, original publisher's decorated cloth with gilt titles to the spine. In near fine condition. An exceptional example, uncommon in this condition. George's first book, Progress and Poverty attempts to answer the questions of why poverty accompanies economic and technological progress and why economies exhibit a tendency toward cyclical boom and bust. Upon publication in 1880, the book helped spark the Progressive Era and a worldwide social reform movement around an ideology now known as 'Georgism'. Jacob Riis, for example, explicitly marks the beginning of the Progressive Era awakening as 1879 because of the date of this publication. rogress and Poverty had perhaps even a larger impact around the world, in places such as Denmark, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, where George's influence was enormous. Contemporary sources and historians claim that in the United Kingdom, a vast majority of both socialist and classical liberal activists could trace their ideological development to Henry George.