ABSTRACT
The chapter addresses the Norwegian adaptation of one of the most popular American ideas of the liberal era (1890–1920), the social and economic doctrine of Henry George, called Georgeism. From the foundation of the Henry George Foundation in Norway and its journal, Retfærd, the chapter examines how Georgeism was translated, moderated and adapted into Norwegian politics and policies. I trace how a set of American intellectual norms of the progressive era were mobilized and domesticated in the process of protecting national waterfalls from international capital. My main argument is that Georgeism ideas had an inspirational impact on Norwegian politics around the turn of the century, albeit in a “diluted” socioeconomic version and in combination with old Norse law and British economic theory. Some public figures from this period stand out as particularly central in the struggle for Georgeist approaches to address what they saw as fundamental injustices in society: the devoted Georgeist Viggo Ullmann and the liberal reformer Johan Castberg. Although they justified their own policies by the successes of a broader political position, they managed to translate some of the main tenets of Georgeism into viable Norwegian policies.
