Irish Land Question

In the late nineteenth century, Ireland was in crisis. Tenant farmers, mostly Catholic and poor, worked land they did not own, at the mercy of absentee Anglo-Irish landlords who collected rent and could evict them at will. Into this cauldron stepped Henry George, the American economist whose radical ideas about land and wealth would reshape reform movements worldwide. This book, drawn from his 1881 visit to Ireland, argues that the Irish land question is not merely a local tragedy but a universal problem: the concentration of land ownership in the hands of few while many toil without security or stake in the earth they cultivate. George contends that any true solution must address the fundamental relationship between human beings and the ground beneath them, a question that echoes far beyond the Irish countryside. Though written over a century ago, this work remains essential reading for anyone grappling with questions of economic inequality, property rights, and the persistent challenge of who truly owns the wealth that societies produce.