By 1886 American and European observers wrote of plutocracy and an “aristocracy of wealth.” The very wealthy were among the men of property—a much larger group who formed a bourgeoisie in the European sense—who feared George and mobilized against him. They had emerged and consolidated in New York in reaction to that city’s assertive working class. This bourgeoisie—merchants, manufacturers, builders, investors, and the professionals who served them—self-consciously conceived of themselves as men of property, recognizing, like George and his adherents, that property in New York had become
...more
