Tolstoy's Henry George: 'a step on the first rung of the ladder...'

Abstract

'After him [Henry George] it is impossible to prevaricate; one must directly take a stand on his or on the other side. My demands go much further than his; bus his are a step on the first rung of the ladder that I'm climbing (Leo Tolstoy, 1885).'A great deal has been written about connections between the American political economist Henry George (d. 1897) and the Russian literary writer and social critic, Leo Tolstoy (d. 1910), in their own time especially. More recently, some writings have also sought to highlight their intellectual relationship - from the perspectives of both George and Tolstoy - including an argument that Tolstoy adopted a 'Georgist spiritual political economy' (e.g. Wenzer, 1997c; Wenzer, 1997a, chapter 1; Wenzer, 1997b, chapter 2; Redfearn, 1992 especially chapter 12; Simmons, 1960, e.g. pp. 77, 201-2,363-5;Maude, 1961). What is typically not taken very thoroughly into account are the profound differences between George and Tolstoy with respect to the political and socio-economic contexts into which each of them was interpreting the potential effectiveness of George's 'Single Tax' scheme.¹ These contexts are historical sites of great significance if one is going to attempt to draw conclusions about the intellectual connections between the two thinkers.