biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1839–97)
|
| biography:
| Social reformer and economist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was probably the most influential 19th-c US social analyst, renowned for his fervent writing and magnetic speaking style. Primarily self-taught, his formal schooling ended at age 14, and he worked as a sailor, journalist, and printer before embarking on Progress and Poverty (1879), which he wrote while working as a state gas-meter inspector in California. His theory called for a ‘single-tax’ on land, exclusive of improvements, that would be sufficient to finance all government expenses. His popularity led him to run, though unsuccessfully, for Mayor of New York City in 1886. |
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