Manhattan For Rent, 1785-1850, by Prof Elizabeth Blackmar. Academic study of the rise of private property as an asset in the pre and post colonial era in Manhattan. Not that well written but extremely insightful. Private real property as an income producing asset has a LONG history of course- is the reason there is written history, really, to a first approximation- but Manhattan real property in this time saw a wholesale shift from abundance to deliberately managed scarcity, with all kinds of ramifications echoing even today, including why is there even a Donald Trump, what is driving back to work in COVID, why are housing prices what they are, and so on and so forth. Book is definitely not for everyone, and requires relatively intimate knowledge of Manhattan geography, but the financialization of real property is the F=ma of the human world. Book is a slog but super valuable.