The Land Question
Henry George's 1881 tract (originally on the Irish land question) arguing that the problem is private land ownership itself, not who the landlords are — a concise entry point to his thought.
Summary
The Land Question (1881), originally published as The Irish Land Question, applies Henry George's analysis to the land agitation then convulsing Ireland. It is one of George's shortest and most pointed works.
Argument
Irish reformers blamed absentee English landlords for Ireland's poverty. George argued they had misdiagnosed the problem: the injustice is not the nationality of the landlords but the institution of private property in land itself. Replacing English landlords with Irish ones would change nothing; only capturing land rent for the community — the single tax remedy — addresses the cause. He thus reframed a nationalist grievance as a universal question of land monopoly.
Significance
The work extended George's influence to the British Isles and the Irish land movement, and is frequently recommended as a brief, vivid introduction to his core thesis before tackling Progress and Poverty.
See Also
Sources
- Henry George (1881), The Land Question (orig. The Irish Land Question). Full text via the Henry George Institute. henrygeorge.org