In Chapter 11 of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, who were some of the reform minded authors who protested?

In Chapter 11 of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn is discussing the late 1800s.  As this is the time just before the Progressive Era, he does not discuss the muckrakers, who are the best-known reform-minded authors in American history.  Instead, Zinn briefly discusses two authors who wrote important books that were critical of America’s economic and political system of the time.

The first of these authors is Henry George who,...

In Chapter 11 of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn is discussing the late 1800s.  As this is the time just before the Progressive Era, he does not discuss the muckrakers, who are the best-known reform-minded authors in American history.  Instead, Zinn briefly discusses two authors who wrote important books that were critical of America’s economic and political system of the time.

The first of these authors is Henry George who, in 1879, wrote the book Progress and Poverty.  In this book, George criticized the concentration of wealth in the US.  He argued that land was the source of all wealth and of inequality.  Therefore, he proposed a single tax on land.  This would fund government programs to reduce inequality and would also encourage large landowners to sell some of their land, thus reducing inequality further.

The second author is Edward Bellamy who wrote Looking Backward in 1888.  That book looked back at its own time through the eyes of a man who fell asleep and awakened in the year 2000.  Bellamy emphasizes that the US is a socialist society by 2000 and describes all the ways in which this system is superior to what actually existed in the country at the time in which he wrote.

These two men are the reform-minded authors who are discussed at greatest length in this chapter.