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Although almost unknown today Henry George was the most important economist and radical social thinker in 19th century America. Indeed, he took economic theory to the public so effectively that he was probably, by the time of his death, the third most famous man in the United States being eclipsed in public recognition only by Mark Twain and Thomas Edison. George's book, Progress and Poverty, is the largest selling economics book of all time and has not been out of print since it was first published. He ran for mayor of New York in 1886 as the candidate of the labor organizations. Henry lost to the Democrat Abram Hewitt . Interestingly, Theodore Roosevelt, later to become president of the United States, came third. Henry's supporters strongly suspected that fraud had cost their candidate victory. |