Obama to bryan with the Income Redistribution philosophy of government. Our profile of president ial candidates continues tonight on American History tv with a look at William Jennings bryan, a threetime democratic president ial candidate around the turn of the century. He also served as secretary of state under president woodrow wilson. Thats at 8 00 p. M. Eastern time here on cspan3. Coming up next on American History tv, author Edward Odonnell talks about the growing economic inequality of the late 19th century, also known as the gilded age. He explores the role of henry george, a newspaper editor and reformer, who took up the fight against the separation of the classes on behalf of the Labor Movement. The Gotham Center for new york city history hosted this hour and 20 minute event. Thank you very much. Thank you, suzanne, thank you to the Gotham Center. Thank you to all of you coming out tonight. I know some of you are saying republican debate, or henry george, republican debate, h
Hard enough and tries hard enough and makes good decisions hes guaranteed to succeed. So hes always chastising himself for being too rash and making bad decisions. Here he is almost a new years eve kind of resolution determined to cultivate habits of determination, energy and industry, feel that i am in a bad situation and must use my utmost effort to keep ahead. So to him people are failing because there are Larger Forces at work. He ends this entry with saw land lady and told her i was not able to pay the rent. Something that i think if anybodys ever been in that position, particularly with two young children, you know thats not a very good situation to be in. Henry george is shaped a little bit by his own personal background but hes also shaped by the troubling duality of the gilded age. Gilded age is a great metaphor, right . A great term. Mark twain coins the term. It suggests that on one hand, things look golden. It is a golden age. And it is an amazing age of technology, of Weal
Implications for our society. So lets begin. Lets talk about who this guy, henry george was. He was born in 1839 to a middle class, lower middleclass family. What lot of people think because he wrote this book on poverty that he must have grown up in poverty. He actually experienced poverty in his middle years, fairly extreme. So henry george was not a very good student, and he left school about the seventh grade. His father steered him into a trade, where he would learn the craft of typesetting, which was a very important trade and a great opportunity. So george flourished, but he was very ambitious, he headed out to california. He hopes to make it big, but he has this idea that hes destined for something great. Really experiencing povrt full on, and often. He would succeed at something, and then fail, but the good things is the printing of trade always guaranteed him something, so he went from the typesetting room to doing a bit of spot write and editing, and eventually became a very
George, newspaper editor and reformer who took up the fight against the separation of classes on behalf of the Labor Movement. The Gotham Center for new york city history hosted this one hour and 20 minute event. Host thank you suzanne, and to the Gotham Center. Thank you to all of you for coming out tonight. I know some of you are saying Republican Debate or henry george, Republican Debate, henry george. Im gratified you chose henry george. Hopefully you will be glad that , you did. It is a great thrill to come back to new york and come back to the Gotham Center, a place that i have done other talks and people i have worked with. Its a really wonderful event and particularly wonderful because i finally get to talk about this henry george book. Let me jump right in by showing you a photo, getting a little personal here. But that is me when i started this book. [laughter] you may be see i dont look quite that young anymore. Im a little hairier. The funny thing is just after i decided to
Let me jump right in by showing you a photo, getting a little personal here. But that is me when i started this book. You may be can see i dont look quite a young anymore. Im a little harrier. The funny thing is just after i decided to write this book, when i was in graduate school, someone mentioned to me the henry george tree in central park, and i said i did not know that. Five days later and walking through central park, its bigger than monaco, a large piece of land. Eached down to time issue two tie my shoe, and i tied my shoe next to the henry george tree. I dont believe in cosmic signs, but this was a sign of some sort or it. We had a camera with us, which is funny. I have been working on this so long that one of my daughters, who is now 25 years old, used ask me daddy, when are you going to finish that . Have you finished your book on Curious George . Its been a bit of an odyssey, i will not tell you the details except that life is what happens when you make firm plans. My firs