Eric F. Goldman

Summary

Eric F. Goldman (1915–1989) was an American historian, professor at Princeton University, and presidential adviser. He is best known for Rendezvous with Destiny: A History of Modern American Reform (1952, Alfred A. Knopf), which traces American reform movements from the post-Civil War era through the New Deal and Fair Deal. Goldman treated Henry George and the single-tax movement as a pivotal thread in American reform history, documenting George's 1886 mayoral campaign, the single-tax movement's pervasive influence on labor politics, and the tensions between single-taxers and Populists. (A-claim; factual)

Key Ideas/Contributions

• George as pivotal reform figure. Goldman treated Progress and Poverty as giving "alluring simplicity" to urban discontent (Goldman 1952, p. 46) and documented the single-tax movement as "having a pervasive effect" on urban reform politics in the 1880s. He quoted the Knights of Labor organ's 1887 testimony: "No man has exercised so great an influence upon the labor movement of to-day as Henry George" (Goldman 1952, p. 47). (A-claim; factual)
• The "steel chain of ideas." Goldman's most distinctive analytical contribution is his argument that dominant groups "had, quite unconsciously, picked from among available theories the ones that best protected their position and had impressed these ideas on the national mind as Truth" (Goldman 1952, p. 78). He described a conservative "steel chain of ideas" — Ricardian "iron law of wages," Malthusian population theory, Social Darwinism, and "natural rights" to property — that blocked progressive reform, including land reform (Goldman 1952, p. 79). This framework connects directly to Georgist critiques of classical economics as serving landed interests. (D-claim; interpretive)
• The 1886 campaign as high-water mark. Goldman documented that in 1886, "single-taxers, socialists, union members, and thousands of citizens who were just plain irritated supported Henry George with such fervor that he barely missed winning the mayorship of New York; a rising young liberal named Theodore Roosevelt ran third" (Goldman 1952, p. 47). (A-claim; factual)
• Single-tax vs. Populist tensions. Goldman documented significant friction between single-taxers and Populists. George was "opposed on principle to the Populist demand for extensive governmental controls over economic life. He wanted the federal government to take the drastic step of imposing the single tax, but he believed this one move would reopen opportunity without requiring any further governmental interferences" (Goldman 1952, p. 59). (D-claim; interpretive)
• The depression of 1873 as context. Goldman described George writing Progress and Poverty in his "rugless, ill-heated room" in San Francisco after the depression of 1873, arguing that the closing of the American frontier of free land was causing the "New World" to "repeat the Old World's dismal story" (Goldman 1952, p. 39). (D-claim; interpretive)

Key Works

• Rendezvous with Destiny: A History of Modern American Reform (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952; revised abridged ed., Vintage Books, 1956) — book page
• The Crucial Decade: America, 1945–1955 (1956)

See Also

• Rendezvous with Destiny — book page
• Henry George — the figure Goldman documents
• The Corruption of Economics — Goldman's "steel chain of ideas" relates to the corruption narrative
• Single Tax Narrative — the movement history Goldman documents
• Single Tax — the proposal and movement

Sources

1. Eric F. Goldman, Rendezvous with Destiny: A History of Modern American Reform (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952; revised abridged ed., Vintage Books, 1956). — used for all historical claims about George, the single-tax movement, and the "steel chain of ideas" (A/D-claims). book page
2. Henry George, Progress and Poverty (1879) — the work Goldman describes George writing during the depression of 1873 (A-claim).
3. Journal of the Knights of Labor (1887) — quoted by Goldman, p. 47, testifying to George's influence (A-claim).