Edward O'Donnell

Henry George And The Crisis Of Inequality Edward O'Donnell

Commendation Quotes: This social biography of Henry George is a beautifully written, deeply researched, carefully argued, and analytically nuanced book. O'Donnell's own prodigious research, as well as his talent for synthesizing the findings of other scholars, makes this a social and political history of Gilded Age America as seen through the lens of Henry George's extraordinary life. Table of Contents: AcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroductionPart I: The Making of a Radical, 1839-18791. "To Be Something and Somebody in the World"2. "Poverty Enslaves Men We Boast Are Political Sovereigns" Progress and Poverty and Henry George's RepublicanismPart II: The Emergence of "New Political Forces," 1880-18853. "New York Is an Immense City" The Empire City in the Early 1880s4. "Radically and Essentially the Same" Irish-American Nationalism and American Labor5. "Labor Built This Republic, Labor Shall Rule It"Part III: The Great Upheaval, 1886-18876. "The Country Is Drifting into Danger"7. "To Save Ourselves from Ruin"8. "Your Party Will Go Into Pieces"EpilogueNotesIndexBiographical Note: Edward T. O'Donnell is an associate professor of history at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is the author of "1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History" and "Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum," and he is the coauthor of "Visions of America: A History of the United States." His work can be found at www. EdwardTODonnell.com and www. InThePastLane.com. Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Publisher Marketing: The remarkable explosion of American industrial output and national wealth at the end of the nineteenth century was matched by a troubling rise in poverty and worker unrest. As politicians and intellectuals fought over who to blame for this crisis, Henry George (1839-1897) published Progress and Poverty (1879), a radical critique of laissez-faire capitalism and its threat to the nation's republican traditions. His book, which became a surprise best-seller, offered a popular, provocative solution: a single-tax on land values. George's writings and years of social activism almost won him the mayor's seat in New York City in 1886. Though he lost the election, his ideas proved instrumental to shaping a progressivism that remains essential to tackling inequality today. Edward T. O'Donnell's exploration of George's life and times merges labor, ethnic, intellectual, and political history to illuminate the early militant labor movement in Gilded Age New York. O'Donnell locates in George's rise to prominence the beginning of a larger effort by American workers to regain control of the workplace and obtain economic security. The Gilded Age was the first but by no means last period in which Americans confronted the mixed outcomes of modern capitalism. George's accessible, forward-thinking ideas on democracy, equality, and freedom have tremendous value to ongoing debates over the future of unions, corporate power, Wall Street recklessness, regulation, and political polarization. Review Citations:

Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2015 (EAN 9780231120005, Hardcover)

Publishers Weekly 04/20/2015 (EAN 9780231120005, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  O'Donnell, Edward Edward O'Donnell has been a Florida real estate broker for more than 20 years and is the President of the Real Estate School, Inc. He is the former President of the Tallahassee Board of Realtors and a District VP of the Florida Association of Realtors. He is the author of "30-Day Track to Success" and the "Real Estate Policies and Procedures Manual", which is used in many real estate firms throughout the country. His Dearborn Real Estate Education titles include: "Continuing Education for the Florida Real Estate Professionals" and the "Florida Real Estate Broker's Guide" (with Linda Crawford). George Gaines, Jr. and David S. Coleman are the long-standing authors of Dearborn Real Estate Education's Florida-specific real estate series. In addition to "Post-Licensing Education for Real Estate Sales Associates", they are co-authors with Linda Crawford of "Florida Real Estate Principles, Practices & Law", "Florida Real Estate Exam Manual", "Florida Sales Associate Prelicensing Key Point Review Audio CD", "Real Estate Math, and " with Michelle Wooton for "Florida Continuing Education for Real Estate Brokers & Sales Associates".