Description
Book SynopsisAn account of the creation of the property market in modern Britain, which had not known a robust market in property as a truly separate, tradeable good before, but instead had seen it as part of a complicated web of social and political obligation and power.
Trade Review"Fitz-Gibbon has written a fascinating account of the everyday experiences, social relationships, and individual desires that built the 'real estate market' in nineteenth-century imperial Britain. With great wit and a Dickensian eye for detail, Fitz-Gibbon introduces the people and knowledge systems that produced the modern idea of a property market. The Victorian auction house, trade press, file cabinet, and 'horrors of house hunting' thus all find their rightful place in the history of capitalism."--Erika Rappaport, University of California, Santa Barbara "Markets and commercial practice are products of culture and imagination, of statistical constructs and legal formulations. Fitz-Gibbon provides an outstanding analysis, full of insight and rich detail, of that most fundamental of all markets: property. His engaging book will appeal to cultural, social, and economic historians, and more generally to anyone who has experienced the emotion of buying and selling a house."--Martin Daunton, University of Cambridge "Marketable Values provides much-needed insight into how a market for property emerged and the role of agents and auctions in creating and communicating value. With its original research, fresh approach, and clear voice, this book will make an important contribution to consumer culture and the creation of markets in modern society."--Frank Trentmann, author of Empire of Things
