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

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

by Amy Butler Greenfield (Goodreads Author)

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 842 ratings · 128 reviews

In the sixteenth century, one of the world's most precious commodities was cochineal, a legendary red dye treasured by the ancient Mexicans and sold in the great Aztec marketplaces, where it attracted the attention of the Spanish conquistadors. Shipped to Europe, the dye created a sensation, producing the brightest, strongest red the world had ever seen. Soon Spain's cochi...more

Paperback, 352 pages

Published April 25th 2006 by Harper Perennial (first published 2005)

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Oct 09, 2012 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book reminds me of an optical illusion that looks like one thing when you look at it one way, but looks like something totally different when viewed another way – think of the ubiquitous Escher posters... Viewed from one perspective, A Perfect Red is a quirky and witty, albeit highly selective, history of Western Civilization from 1500 to the present, with a special emphasis on the Spanish Empire. From another perspective, it is a 261-page history of the trade in a particular commodity that...more This book reminds me of an optical illusion that looks like one thing when you look at it one way, but looks like something totally different when viewed another way – think of the ubiquitous Escher posters... Viewed from one perspective, A Perfect Red is a quirky and witty, albeit highly selective, history of Western Civilization from 1500 to the present, with a special emphasis on the Spanish Empire. From another perspective, it is a 261-page history of the trade in a particular commodity that has no economic significance today but was marginally important 200 to 400 years ago.

The commodity in question is cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), a red dye prepared from the bodies of a kind of insect that attacks and lives in and on prickly pear cacti pads that grow in Mexico and the American Southwest. The Spanish conquistadors discovered that native Mexicans could dye clothing a brighter, more vivid red than any available in Europe. The dye was prepared by a painstaking labor-intensive process of scraping the bodies of the insects off the cacti. Cochineal became a valuable export for the Spanish Empire because other Europeans could not duplicate the intense red color it produced.

The insect that produces the dye is so small that in the days before good microscopes, Europeans (including the Spaniards) had no idea of the nature of the dye. Most of them thought it was a form of inorganic matter. The finished product was quite valuable and easy to transport, so it attracted many pirates. However, it was extremely difficult to produce anywhere but Mexico because the prickly pear cacti did not thrive in many other places and the live insects were very sensitive to cold. The Spanish maintained tight security on the production of the product and enforced severe penalties on anyone who attempted to break the crown’s monopoly.

The story of how the Spanish maintained their monopoly and how other Europeans tried to discover the secret of the dye is an interesting one that stretches from the 16th to the 18th centuries. In the process of telling a little story (the dye trade), the author's “back story” account encompasses the reigns and characters of Charles V and Phillip II, the Hapsburg Empire, the conquests of Mexico and Peru, and the continuing rivalries of Spain, England, Holland, and France. In this respect, the dye trade acts as a microcosm of a much broader European history, a conceit that Greenfield handles deftly.

However, the author’s technique of filtering the history of Western Europe through the lens of the red dye trade breaks down in the 19th century. Spain’s monopoly in cochineal persisted, but by then the country had declined significantly as it gradually lost its overseas empire and faced bankruptcy. Moreover, the German chemical industry developed synthetic dyes of comparable quality. I think Greenfield overstates her case when she attributes the rise of the whole German chemical industry to efforts to find a substitute for cochineal. And when she traces those efforts to the development of poisonous gas for World War I, the chain of causation is too diffuse to be credible.

So back to the optical illusion. When the book is viewed as political history seen as a partial function of the cochineal trade, it works pretty well from 1500 to about 1830, but then has nothing worthwhile to say. If viewed as merely a history of the trade in a particular red dye, it is no more significant than a history of the trade in copra or jute.

Evaluation: This is a good book for those who like niche knowledge, or who prefer history in more entertaining forms.

Rating: 2.5/5
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Jan 10, 2012 Brian Kelley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Both exhaustive and exhausting, I struggled through A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield. Perhaps this is more a reflection on me than the writer as the book has garnered many plaudits from top reviewers. Greenfield obviously did her homework--there is little wasted space--as she elevates a lowly insect to instant celebrity.

I did learn quite a bit, so the book did not disappoint in that regard. Yet the full title was so inviting that I expected something sexier in style...more

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Jul 08, 2011 Camelama rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-but-do-not-own

This was a fasctinating book - so much information that I knew the top layer of, but had no idea all the history that lurked beneath! I love reading about how some tiny event, object or person can shift the entire world history ... and this book is full of those lovely gems. A more in-depth look at the entire timeline would take many many books, as this covers everything from ancient red dyes through Cortez and Spanish rule of the Americas, and on into 20th century chemical dye creations. So whi...more

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May 02, 2011 Andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, read-2011

I picked up this book while in the town of Independencia, Bolivia, volunteering and learning to do some simple weaving at a tiny community weaving initiative, spearheaded by a former Peace Corps volunteer (pazabolivia.org). They are working to revive and pass down their complex traditional weaving heritage, and at the same time reclaim some of the traditional knowledge they've lost. One of the lost pieces is dying fiber (mostly llama and sheep wool) from natural dyes. For their reds, pinks, and...more

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Mar 04, 2011 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: knitting

Since I seem to be on a roll talking about books that have to do with knitting, I'll add this one. Cochineal, who knew? Years out from reading the book, I still get pleasure thinking about it when I notice it on the bookshelf. Cochineal is a dyestuff derived from parasitic colonies of scale insects that are native to Mexican cacti. For centuries it was a commodity that drove empire and espionage worldwide, as the subtitle says. Before cochineal was available from the Spanish colonies, there was...more

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Jun 02, 2010 Angela rated it 5 of 5 stars

Amy Butler Greenfield’s A Perfect Red tells a two-fold story of human interactions with the color red. The novel traces the paths of development of red dye technology from its origins in ochre, used by Cro-Magnon, to madder to cochineal to modern synthetic dyes. The author specifically goes into great detail about the history of cochineal, a small insect originally from Mexico. The Spanish conquistadores found the natives cultivating it in New Spain. This insect yielded a brilliant red dye when...more Amy Butler Greenfield’s A Perfect Red tells a two-fold story of human interactions with the color red. The novel traces the paths of development of red dye technology from its origins in ochre, used by Cro-Magnon, to madder to cochineal to modern synthetic dyes. The author specifically goes into great detail about the history of cochineal, a small insect originally from Mexico. The Spanish conquistadores found the natives cultivating it in New Spain. This insect yielded a brilliant red dye when dried and crushed. The dyestuff was brought back to Europe and confirmed to be the best red dye the Old World had ever seen. Beyond mere conversation about the basic technology of producing the dyestuff, the author also explores the ways in which this quest for deep reds impacted social systems around the globe. From rural growers to scientist societies to pirates, all were a part of the system put in place to bring this red hue to the rich and powerful who craved it.
This subject matter is definitely important, because color is all around us and plays such an active role in our daily lives. We dress ourselves in many different colors of clothing. We sit on couches of varying colors in rooms painted other colors in houses painted yet more colors. We consume food that has been dyed to look a certain way. We drive cars that can be bought in any color we desire. Yet despite this prominence of color in our world, we rarely pay heed to where color comes from because of our removal from the production of these goods. The fact that this book went into detail about the historic art of dyeing was helpful in that it started the process of revealing what actually goes on to bring us these shades of color. It revealed that the road from natural dyes to synthetic dyes was long and difficult, and more specifically that the road through different natural dyes was very complex. The history given about different substances used to procure dyes was useful to present a context for our current textile industry.
What, one might ask, was the drive to find the perfect red? This social construction of color was an important issue addressed in the book. In the time when cochineal was found in Mexico, red anything was a hot commodity in Europe. It was hot because it was rare and only the very wealthiest could afford it. People of high stature bought red clothing and adorned their homes with all the red they could afford to show off their status. As the demand for the dye went up, people started looking for more places to raise cochineal. Then as they succeeded, the demand went down because the rich weren’t buying it anymore because there was enough to go around. It wasn’t rare anymore. It wasn’t expensive anymore. It was no longer a sign of high status. It came to be a symbol for sin and lust and adultery, something to be worn by prostitutes. In our day and age, do colors still have wealth connotations? Maybe not what they once did. Anyone can buy a shirt of any color now. Colors still move in and out of fashion, but those shift are more the result of decisions made by the fashion industry than by a shortage or abundance of various dyestuffs. Yet, this deconstruction of color as a status symbol is an important point to make because it helps us to a better understanding of societies through more developed interpretations of the art of the time based on the palette of colors.
One useful theme that the author brought up was the fact that producing the dyestuff needed to fuel the art world was a basis for many a community’s existence. There was a lot of information about the rural communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, who developed a certain strain of cochineal over perhaps a thousand years. For about three hundred years, this community was the main site of production of cochineal that served the European market. The people of Oaxaca sometimes produced and exported up to a million pounds of cochineal in a year. It was their livelihood. This is comparable to the societies of chemists who were working on synthetic dyes in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. One example is William Henry Perkin, who invented a synthetic dye called Perkin’s mauve. After he was told that there was a market for his dye, he set up a factory with the help of his family and got a business going. The desire for color was enough to support many different community systems.
Another important theme in the book was the influence color has on social order. The whole cochineal system was based on the forced labor of many different indigenous peoples. Because the dyestuff was so wanted in Europe, nations were always on the lookout for new places to grow the insects and the cacti on which they flourished. The places the governments often found to be ideal for growing were tropical colonial outposts of the large empires, not usually in the European lands. The Europeans were also unmotivated to do the hard labor of caring for and harvesting these insects, so they would force the locals to do it for little or no pay. This happened all across the board, from the Spanish colonies in Mexico and the Canary islands to the Dutch colonies in Java. That slavery was all in service of the global color market. That labor brought about elaborate silk gowns that women wore at court and Van Eyck’s Man in a Red Turban. This social dimension is an important deconstruction of the market and inseparable from the products that the dyestuff yielded.
I feel very comfortable trusting the author of this book. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were dyers, which sparked her own interest in dyeing. There were more than fifty pages of cited sources at the end of the novel, and she referenced both more recent scholarly sources as well as primary source documents from the time in which cochineal trade was blossoming. She referenced the primary source documents a lot in the telling of the story, which made it that much more believable for her to be quoting people’s letters back and forth or referencing trade quotas of dyestuff as compared to other goods in the markets at that time. It was easy to trust her research methods and therefore, it was also easy to trust her research.
In writing this book, the author brought to light many issues in the color industry which are often neglected. She covered ground from the origin of the desire for red dyestuff to the places it was produced to the scientists that were looking at it under microscopes to the indigenous people who cultivated it to the rich who consumed it. She illuminated the multifaceted nature of the market of art, for that whole system was fueled by art. That doesn’t just mean the people who put paint to canvas. The system was fueled by the everyday artist who combined colors to wear on her person or put in her food or decorate her house with. We are those artists even today. This book was a very informative deconstruction of color and revealed the many different dimensions of color as an industry and machine of social change.

^That was my book review that I wrote for my class. I really enjoyed reading this book. The end.(less)

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Nov 05, 2011 Sharon Griffitts rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a most interesting book about the color red but also about a bit of history I was totally unaware of. Red is seen today as a color of power, war, anger, energy but was not always so readily available as today.
It was once worn only by nobility and the richest of the rich due to the high cost, making sense of its association with power. Most of the book centers on early years of Spanish rule in the Americas, specifically in Mexico where the most brilliant reds were created from little bu...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Andres rated it 5 of 5 stars

Extremely interesting chronicle of what was once a highly lucrative commodity that nobody really remembers today: a bug that produces a red dye that, at the time, couldn't be beat.

We all know Spain mined the "new world" for its gold and silver but cochineal was an empire money maker for hundreds of years, mainly because it kept the insect a secret, exporting only the dye product to those willing to pay handsomely for it but never revealing its origin. Even after it was proved to be an insect ste...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I adored this rich history of the color red and the explanation of the desires and mysteries surrounding all shades of crimson.
Greenfield does for the hue,what Davis did for the book ,Strapless and the intense research about Sargeant and his notorious poser.

From the beginning of man,red has been a remarkable tease. Trying to capture the color on fabric or glass has been something wars and rivalries have been fought fiercely over. Every deeply researched page is filled with remarkable exploration...more

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Nov 20, 2007 Garen rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any one who wants to sink into another time and place

What do we take for granted? So many things. Here's a book that tells us how the world was tipped sideways with the acquisition of just one of those things: an abundant and stable source of the color red. Who knew?

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May 03, 2009 Elizabeth S rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Real history by a real historian with a real gift for telling the story. Shifting perspectives from the alchemy of Renaissance guilds of cloth dyers through the period of colonial imperialism, the search for the best technology of the era to dye cloth the perfect shade of red. Cochineal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal A wonderful re-telling of familiar periods.

My only wish is for yet more about the pre-conquest Mexican culture which in fact developed the best technology. A sequel I hope...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Mattie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I often enjoy histories of small or offbeat subjects. It can be a great way to learn obscure things and to think about "bigger" historical events in a different way. Amy Greenfield's history of cochineal - "Europe's premier red dyestuff" - is a terrific example of this genre. A Perfect Red weaves together the cultural history of the color red, particularly in textiles, has had in the West with the natural history of the insects and plants required to create cochineal and the political history of...more

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Jul 27, 2009 Marie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book - not fine literature but a great story. who would think you could take the cochineal insect that feeds off the nopales cactus in remote Oaxaca mexico and turn it into a story - just as the title says - of espionage - and more: world history, international trade, dueling egos of monarchies, explorers, and rapid nationalists defending the honor of spain against england. Very quick read and appropriate for teens on up. But then again, maybe I loved it b/c i was actually reading i...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Margie R-O rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: got-anthropology

Amy's work is beyond through! This was a fascinating story. While tracing the microhistory of the color red, it ties together the history of conquest in the Americas with the concurrent events in Europe. In most histories these are only loosely related, but it's amazing to see how they affected one another. Amy's storytelling method connects the two together so you could see their effect on each other. It isn't an easy read, but it was worthwhile. I'd love to see a fictionalization of this story...more

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Jun 03, 2011 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Given its subject matter, this book had the potential to be very dry and tedious, even for a textile history buff such as myself. The bulk of the book focuses on the story of cochineal, and the various (mostly failed) attempts by European powers to acquire it for their own production. From Pirates to Perkin's Purple, my interest was held from start to finish. Because I read it on the Kindle, I sadly missed out on all the images that were provided in the print edition. The writing is very accessi...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Marfita rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthropology-etc

This book has everything: science, history, politics, botany, biology, couture, and espionage. Greenfield puts the history of the cochineal into perspective, from millennia of cultivation by the Tlaxcalans to the hunger for intense colors in dyes across Europe and Asia. Apparently, Europeans didn't have a satisfactory red dye until the Cortez sent some cochineal back after his conquest of Mexico. The Spanish maintained their monopoly of the dye for a long time and even though they freely admitte...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Steve Bennett rated it 3 of 5 stars

A Perfect Red is a very nice book. I learned way more about the cochineal (hope I spelled it correctly--still do not know how to pronounce the word)than I ever thought I would know in this life. It is the insect that is responsible for the best red dye used for centuries. A delightful book with byway discussions of Spanish imperialism (the cochineal is native to Mexico and Spain used all its imperial powers to profit from the cochineal trade ), early advancements in microscopes (for a long time...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Orsolya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, library, art, colors

Did you know that “red” is the oldest color term in all languages (save black and white)? No? You aren’t an artist, say? Although creative genes are welcome, this book envelops catchy themes such as pirates, secrecy, espionage, social standing of colors and dyestuffs, etc; and isn’t merely for the artistic audience. A Perfect Red demonstrates the soap opera values of history and combines a valuable sweeping resource of art, history, and science.

Having enjoyed and learned more in the four-page pr...more Did you know that “red” is the oldest color term in all languages (save black and white)? No? You aren’t an artist, say? Although creative genes are welcome, this book envelops catchy themes such as pirates, secrecy, espionage, social standing of colors and dyestuffs, etc; and isn’t merely for the artistic audience. A Perfect Red demonstrates the soap opera values of history and combines a valuable sweeping resource of art, history, and science.

Having enjoyed and learned more in the four-page prologue of A Perfect Red then in some other books; I knew this would be a winner. Amy Butler Greenfield’s passion and knowledge is strikingly gripping and causes mutual interest with the reader. A Perfect Red initially discusses the background of the world of textiles/dyes and Europe’s quest for rich fabrics as a social symbol. Although the information is academic and scholarly in nature; Greenfield’s writing style is simply beautiful, therefore, not exhausting the reader with too much menial information. Greenfield is the type of author which grammarians would smile at.

The wealth of particulars in A Perfect Red is simply remarkable. With each line the reader learns a new and exemplary fact. Who knew the color red was so riveting and symbolic! Unlike some other historical commodity- study books (think: the spice trade), Greenfield’s book on the color trade reads easily with the endearing drama of a fiction novel. Further, one can’t deny the extensive research involved while Greenfield doesn’t present these in a speculating or condescending way.

There are some unsatisfying elements to consider. Unless you have an avid interest in the Spanish Conquest and subsequent Mexican Revolution, you may find these descriptions a bit lengthy and over-detailed (and somewhat straying on the topic of cochineal dyestuffs). Yes, these topics are crucial to understand the history, standardization, and economy of cochineal but it was a bit much. This resulted in the pace of the book slowing down throughout. A Perfect Red began with a “bang” and then found a slower path to follow. Meaning, it lacked a steady and consistent attention-grabbing story arc.

Another over-detailed, “slow” factor was Greenfield’s habit of diving much too deeply into the backgrounds/bios of each individual involved in the color trade which aren’t always necessary for the flow of the history. This again effects the gripping sensations of the historical account.

The books gains speed toward the conclusion of the story with the descriptions of the downfall of cochineal and with the advent of synthetic dyes and William Henry Perkin’s glories in the textile and dye industries. This section is more in the speed of describing the social aspects of color and synthetic dye creation/discovery emulating the excitement in the beginning of the book. However, the very end was weak, not memorable, and spoke more about other colors than leaving a lasting impact of “food for thought” on the color red or red dyestuffs.

If you are seeking a book on the pure symbolism value of cochineal and dyestuffs, A Perfect Red is the wrong source. However, if you are interested in a complete three-century span story of the historical rise and fall of cochineal; then Amy Butler Greenfield’s A Perfect Red will satisfy your craving.
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Mar 22, 2013 Bev Hankins rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, mount-tbr-2013, history, non-fiction

I'm afraid that A Perfect Red: Empire Espionage, & the Quest for the Color of Desire didn't do a whole lot for me. And I don't think it's Amy Butler Greensfield's fault. You see, I was kind of confused when I picked this up at my local library's used bookstore in July 2011. The kindly volunteers who manage the store had shelved it on the hardback fiction shelf and when I read the synopsis I thought that this must fictional history. I've read those before--heavy on the history, but still a fi...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Joy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I originally saw this book for sale at the Sewing Expo, and picked it up on my Kindle a few weeks later. It's a fascinating nonfiction read about the color red and the quest for red dye throughout the last thousand years or so. The truest reds came from cochineal, a small insect indigenous to Mexico, and entire trade router, companies, fortunes, and empires turned on the possession and use of cochineal. The facts about the cochineal industry are fascinating, from the labor-intensive nopalries wh...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Ellen by: Dr. Gaskins

Shelves: non-fiction, read-but-unowned

An amazing account of the origin of the highly sought after red dye. I admit I had to read this for a class, but this book wasn't specifically assigned to me; I chose to read this for a book report because I saw the word "red" in it, and I didn't care what it was about as long it was about red (which is my favorite color if I didn't make it obvious). Anyway, I don't regret my decision one bit. My only regret is not buying a copy of the book (I borrowed the book from my university library) becaus...more

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Dec 21, 2009 Trena rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Nerdy Fashionistas

This book, a history of cochineal dye, was a well-told, fascinating story. As with any commodity history, the author gets a little too convinced of the importance of her pet commodity (see also, Salt), but it does not diminish the scale of the story.

As with Salt, the book focuses a lot on Europe, a little on the Americas, and none on Africa. It is more justifiable, however, as cochineal is a Central American product that was exported pretty much exclusively to Europe. It would have been interes...more

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Oct 17, 2008 Paige rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, nonfiction, narrative-nonfiction

SHORT REVIEW:
In medieval Europe, red textiles were available only to royalty because there was no reliable source of red dye. All of this changed when the Spanish Conquistadores discovered cochineal, a natural dye producing an intense shade of crimson, being sold in the Aztec marketplaces in Mexico. This discovery set off a global competition – complete with spies and pirates - to obtain the valuable material. Weaving together fascinating strands of social, political and economic history, Green...more SHORT REVIEW:
In medieval Europe, red textiles were available only to royalty because there was no reliable source of red dye. All of this changed when the Spanish Conquistadores discovered cochineal, a natural dye producing an intense shade of crimson, being sold in the Aztec marketplaces in Mexico. This discovery set off a global competition – complete with spies and pirates - to obtain the valuable material. Weaving together fascinating strands of social, political and economic history, Greenfield tells a little-known but fascinating true adventure story.

LONG REVIEW:
This book is on the unlikely sounding subject of cochineal, which is a natural dye produced from insect shells that produces an intense shade of red.

Cochineal powder was derived from bugs that lived on a specific cactus plant native to Mexico. Mexican farmers had cultivated it for many centuries because it produced a brilliant red dye that would stay fast on clothing. In contrast, Europeans in the Middle Ages had no good source of red dye; everything they used would fade from exposure to light or water. So when the Spaniards conquered Mexico in the 1500’s, they were quite excited to find cochineal powder being sold in the Aztec marketplaces. Soon this powder became a top commodity and Spain fiercely tried to protect its monopoly of the dye.

Part of the story told in this book is the race between European empires for this dye, and this competition included pirates who would attack Spanish ships as well as spies and explorers and scientists from different countries who all tried to get the dye for their own countries.

Although the author starts by focusing on something very specific – the history of a certain color dye – she weaves in a lot of fascinating history on more general topics including the history of fashion and social status, and economic and political and social history for not only Europe but also the rest of the world.

Towards the end of the book she talks about how the discovery of synthetic dyes by scientists in the 1800’s seemed to spell the end of the use of cochineal, but then she brings the story to the present time, and the interesting thing now is that cochineal is making something of a comeback because in recent years people have become concerned about health risks associated with synthetic dyes (red dye #2).

So, I found this to be a really fascinating historical account. There are a number of other books that also delve into the history of specific colors, for example: Blue: the history of a color and and Mauve: how one man invented a color that changed the world. Part of the appeal of this book, I think, is the fact that it is so multidisciplinary – it pulls in fascinating details from many different fields such as history, science, textiles, politics, etc. It’s a little bit scholarly in that it draws on many different fields of learning, but it is written in a very accessible style. A lot of popular narrative nonfiction books share these appeal factors. For example, Simon Winchester (The Professor and the Madman), Dava Sobel (Galileo’s Daughter), Nathaniel Philbrick (Mayflower) and Jack Weatherford all write popular history accounts that pull generously from other fields of learning, so that readers get swept into a compelling narrative and learn lots of interesting tidbits along the way.
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Oct 08, 2008 Will Byrnes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Cochineal was the source of rich red color for centuries. What is it? A question for which Europe had no true answer for hundreds of years. This book tells the tale of the color red, how the color was viewed in society in various periods of time. (An indicator of class distinction, or of harlotry, for example) It is primarily a tale of adventure in which many attempt to locate the true source of this very valuable product, then try to steal it. Not only adventurers but scientists applied their s...more

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Dec 27, 2007 Hannah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: give-aways

For obvious reasons, I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, I am easily bored by political histories and the bulk of this book is just that. It’s really a history of the cultivation and use of the cochineal bug for red dyes, which is a story very similar to the cultivation and use of cacao, quinine, coca, sugar, coffee, bananas, and many other New World products that Europeans pillaged from the Americas, and that I have already read about.

For me, the book didn’t get interesting until...more For obvious reasons, I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, I am easily bored by political histories and the bulk of this book is just that. It’s really a history of the cultivation and use of the cochineal bug for red dyes, which is a story very similar to the cultivation and use of cacao, quinine, coca, sugar, coffee, bananas, and many other New World products that Europeans pillaged from the Americas, and that I have already read about.

For me, the book didn’t get interesting until it reached the 19th Century and the life of William Perkins, the man who first discovered analine dyes (and pioneered the manufacture of synthetic dyes in general, which led to synthetic medicines, plastics and weaponry, among other things), and whose story is far better told in one of my favorite books, “Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World,” by Simon Garfield. This brief chapter, which accounts for roughly 5% of the 261 pages of text, was the only part of the book that I could read without wanting to doze. The rest was an exhausting repetition of examples of red color as used by historical cultures, as well as the gruesome and oft-told tale of colonization and the import trade to Europe from the 16th-19th Centuries. One other item of note was a description of the alchemistic science employed to create natural dyes in the Middle Ages.

According to the back cover, the LA Times described it as “rollicking,” which is probably the last word I would use in reference to this book. For anyone interested in reading more about color and dyes, I highly recommend “Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World,” by Simon Garfield. And if you are interested in colonialization and the European trade of natural materials from the New World during the 16th to 19th Centuries, you should look into “Seeds of Change: Six Plants that Transformed Mankind,” by Henry Hobhouse. It’s not a page turner, but if you read it, you will never need to read anything on the subject again.(less)

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Dec 05, 2012 Ruth Charchian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

How in the world could the simple color red generate SO much global history and impact the livelihoods of so many people for centuries? This book should be on the MIA book tour list for 2013. It is a fascinating history for historians, artists, weavers, and designers of all stripes. Not only is this story fascinating, given the vast amounts of revenue making the color red generated for many countries, cities,and how many jobs were created, how come i never heard about any of it before this book?...more

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Sep 30, 2009 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love this sort of popular history of everyday things.

The middle of the book feels like it should be called "the history of cochineal," but that's reflective of the history, at least as far as I can tell.

I have no way of evaluating the historical facts, but the writing is engaging and I've been having fun reading this.

Having gotten to the end, it turns out this did start out as a book about cochineal, and the other stuff is just historical context. That makes more sense.

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Jun 30, 2011 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

I'm a fan both of color and of microhistories, so this was a good match for me. I enjoyed most of it, though I enjoyed the science and history of color use more than the political wrangling that went on over the cochineal. It was all interesting, though. I do think I got more out of the books 'Mauve' about the development of the first aniline dye, and Finlay's 'Colors: a natural history of the palette,' which was about many colors. Still, I'm glad I read this one.

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Dec 11, 2010 Elizabeth B. rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a surprising surprising book. Who would have ever thought that at one time, Oaxacan cochineal farmers held Europe's supply of the most desirable color in their hands? Greenfield outlines the history of the pigment and its vital role in Renaissance economy. It could be considered one of the engines of the age of discovery, along with that of the spices. The topic alone of the domestication of this tiny cactus dwelling bug is an amazing revelation.

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Dec 18, 2010 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

I stumbled on this little gem at the exhibit about dyes at the DeYoung. Butler tells the story of the discovery of the first "perfect" red dye by putting it into a vast context: the histories of the new and old worlds and how they interacted, the development of science and technology, the fluctuations of fashion, the development of global markets, etc. She does a masterful job of making an arcane subject into a fascinating story.

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About Amy Butler Greenfield

Amy Butler Greenfield was a grad student in history when she gave into temptation and became a writer. Since then, she has become an award-winning author.

Born in Philadelphia, Amy grew up in the Adirondack Mountains and later studied history at Williams College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Oxford. She now lives with her family in England, where she writes, bakes double-dark-chocolate...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126293.A_Perfect_Red?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347782559l/126293.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/126293.A_Perfect_Red?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire by Amy Butler Greenfield[/url]

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