A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire

This book, "A Perfect Red" by Amy Butler Greenfield, takes us to many of secure worlds while showing us the economic and psychological histories of the color red. Much more than the color red, she shows how these economies created wars and alliances. She also covers commerce and the distribution of plants and animals as it is seen from the color red. The focus is not as narrow as it sounds and much of this can be applied to other plants and colors. Mrs. Greenfield starts out in her book with justification for why she's following the color red. Some of these justifications are very thin. But once you get into the details of the book you will be absorbed and as much as you think you know about history, commerce, agriculture, botany, and politics there is always something new to be learned. Somehow I lived my whole life without ever hearing about cochineal (a type of red dye) and variants. This book is so well written in such detail that you almost want to go out and try some of the experiments with your own creating of the color red. If you enjoyed this book and the many adventures that Amy Greenfield carries you through then you will also enjoy reading "Green Cargoes" by Anne Dorrance. Green cargoes

Mrs. Greenfield (seems like she should be a Redfield) has written a wonderful example of how popular history should be written. She has an eye for the telling detail yet gets the big picture, and skillfully weaves the anecdotal with the grand. Her exposition of the importance that textiles, and by association, coloring dyes influenced post-Renaissance Europeans in their quest for wealth is a must-read for anyone interested in social or technological history. I would have liked to hear more about the color red aside from cochineal, and she does provide some of that, but not to the extent of, say, "Blue - The History of a Color." Conspicuously, since she is a redhead herself, she does not delve into the myths and stigmas associated with carrottops. Perhaps she will follow up her charming tome with a more detailed description of my favorite color.

Amy B. Greenfield spoke at my local bookstore as this book was debuting, and boy is she, and her book, fabulous. She brought a jar of dried cochineal beetles to show everyone, as well as a half-dozen silk scarves she herself had dyed with cochineal. The four years of research she invested in this bewitching story are evident not only in the accuracy and thoroughness of her book, but in the riveting writing itself. She is clearly enamored of the subject, and seduces the reader into a shared state of fascination. _Red_ is without question the loveliest nonfiction I've read in years.

This book is both informative and entertaining, it reads like a novel and if you want more information, the notes, which are hidden on the last pages, give access to a thorough academic research. But this is not ONLY and academic book. Cochineal is present even in the irresistible red of Campari and has been used by Renaissance masters and Mexican artisans since time immemorial to this very day. Highly recommended.

In recent years, there have been published a number of excellent books about the history of color, including monographs focusing on natural and coal tar dyes. Amy Butler Greenfield's book stands at the very top of this list. Her focus, cochineal, is an extraordinary red dyestuff so aggressively coveted that in directed international trade and politics for centuries. The story that Butler Greenfield tells rests on an impressive mountain of scholarship that is hidden from the reader by wavy prose that carry us effortlessly between the colonial European powers and the locales in the West Indies and the Spanish Main where the cochineal beetle was cultivated. Even better however are the extensive notes and bibliography that are indeed available at the end of the book, aspects of popular history all too often omitted by publishers. HarperCollins should be congratulated for fully embracing the sources. Butler Greenfield is an excellent historian, an inspired writer, a natural story teller, and not a bad chemist either. A Perfect Red will be enjoyed by those who merely enjoy rip-roaring tales of conquest and piracy, as well as by those with a deeper interest in science and cultural history. It strikes a perfect balance between great fun and great learning. It has my highest recommendation.