First published in 1879, this was 19th-century America's bestselling book (aside from the Bible), and it was the most popular work on economics ever published anywhere. Author Henry George proposes a "single tax" that would tax the value of land as a source of public revenue. His ideas were fundamental to America's Progressive Era from the 1890s through the 1920s, and they influenced many major political figures.

This proposal of a "single tax," taxing the value of land as a source of public revenue, was a 19th-century bestseller and the most popular book on economics ever published.