Episode 2 of 2

Early Reception and Sales

When: 1879–1899
Where: Reception of Progress and Poverty in the English-speaking world
Part of: Henry George self-publishes Progress and Poverty

The book achieved massive success, selling over three million copies, and Jacob Riis marked 1879 as the start of the Progressive Era awakening because of its publication.

Jacob Riis explicitly marked the beginning of the Progressive Era awakening as 1879 because of the date of this publication. Soon after its publication, over three million copies were bought, exceeding all other books written in the English language except the Bible during the 1890s. The sales figure therefore reflects reception over the following decade rather than a single 1879 event.

Sources

Progress and Poverty Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-19
Henry George Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-16

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.