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AbstractHazen S. Pingree was a remarkable civic leader. In his four terms as mayor of Detroit from 1889 to 1897, Pingree lowered the cost of vital public utilities, including gas, lighting, and transit; modernized the city's sewage system; and rooted out corruption and dishonesty in municipal government. He successfully spearheaded the movement for the three‐cent streetcar fare and brought Detroit to the brink of public ownership and operation of its own transit system. Pingree's social reform program for Detroit centered around two interrelated urban reform movements gathering steam at the turn of the 20th century: the movement for municipal ownership and the movement to equalize taxes by increasing taxes on corporate property. Both of these movements drew heavily from Henry George's single tax. In particular, Pingree's efforts to secure a municipally owned and operated street railway system and effort to increase taxation on corporate property illustrate the ways in which turn‐of‐the‐20th‐century civic leaders drew from the rhetoric and substance of George's ideas to implement progressive urban reforms.

AbstractTom L. Johnson made his mark on politics far from Capitol Hill, in the gritty world of turn‐of‐the‐century Cleveland, Ohio. Barely 30 years old and at the height of a successful career as an inventor, steel manufacturer, and street railway monopolist, Tom Loftin Johnson experienced a change of heart. After discovering the ideas of Henry George, Johnson became a lifelong advocate of the single tax, which he used to guide his new career in politics. In 1901, Cleveland voters elected Johnson to the first of his four terms as mayor of the industrial city of 400,000 people. During his eight‐year reign as chief executive, Cleveland took over essential services such as garbage collection, street cleaning, and lighting from private enterprise. Johnson helped humanize the city's correctional system by replacing the old workhouse with a network of farm colonies designed to rehabilitate wayward youths and adults convicted of petty crimes. Largely as a result of Johnson's efforts, Cleveland won constitutional home rule, a lower streetcar fare, the referendum, and higher taxes on the corporations that amassed giant fortunes through perpetual public franchise grants. For a short time, while he was still mayor, Cleveland owned and operated its own streetcar company, a rarity in early 20th‐century America. All of these accomplishments made Johnson something of a hero to progressive reformers. The muckraker Lincoln Steffens famously called Johnson "the best Mayor of the best‐governed city in the United States."

Volume V of The Annotated Works of Henry George presents the unabridged and posthumously published text of The Science of Political Economy (1898). George's original text is comprehensively supplemented by annotations which explain his many references to other political economists and writers both well known and obscure.

Volume VI of The Annotated Works of Henry George presents the published text of A Perplexed Philosopher (1892). George's original text is comprehensively supplemented by annotations which explain his many references to other political economists and writers both well known and obscure.