Near the end of his life, Robert Anton Wilson published a list of books that he recommended to everyone to read. In his words, these books are:

“Not the ‘best’ or even my favorites exactly: just the bare minimum of what everybody really needs to chew and digest before they can converse intelligently about the 21st Century”

Progress and Poverty by Henry George is the first of these books, chronologically speaking. Published in 1879, it was derided and ignored by "expert" economists but was lauded by the millions of destitute Americans who'd lost out in the American dream as it explained why they'd lost and what could be done about it. Eventually, the Economic "experts" had to take it seriously, so much so that they invented the whole field of neo-classical economics to refute and discredit George's theories. On the other side of the coin, it inspired a woman who was impressed with his theories to create a board game that showed how property tends to concentrate itself in the hands of the few. You may have heard of it: Monopoly (the original contained a supplement where, once George's theories were enacted, things became more equitable. More equitable, alas, does not make for more exciting game play and so it was axed).

One simple change makes the game of Monopoly more equitable and could also do so for society. It was derided and criticised because it worked. Why else invent a whole new field of economics to suppress it?

This e-book edition is based on the 25th Anniversary edition of 1904, and contains an introduction written by George's son. The footnotes have been collected into endnotes for the chapters, and will display well, assuming you have a good e-book reader.