Blood, Sweat and Earth is a hard-hitting historical expose of the diamond industry, focusing on the exploitation of workers and the environment, and the monopolization of uncut diamonds, and how little this has changed over time. It describes the use of forced labour and political oppression by Indian sultans, the Portuguese in Brazil, and South African industrialists, as well as the hoarding of diamonds to maintain high prices, from the English East India Company to De Beers.
While recent discoveries of diamond deposits in Siberia, Canada and Australia have brought an end to monopolization, the book shows that advances in the production of synthetic diamonds have not yet been able to eradicate the exploitation caused by the world's unquenchable thirst for sparkle.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Diamonds are a global commodity with a rich but violent history. Tijl Vanneste is an ideal guide to this history, combining the knowledge of a specialist with an eye for poignant details. He tells the whole story of diamonds, ranging across five centuries and five continents, and shows that the history of trade is also the history of race, gender, labour and geopolitics. This is a sweeping and provocative history, told with one eye on the present. * Michael Bycroft, Assistant Professor of the History of Science and Technology at the University of Warwick and co-editor of 'Gems in the Early Modern World' * A fascinating and extremely well-researched study of diamonds through the ages, from myths to monopolies. It is a long-awaited enquiry into the part these gems have played in the changing trade patterns over the passing centuries, mirroring the rise of colonialism and trading companies, and the increasing impact of ethical and environmental concerns in recent decades. Tijl Vanneste has done an excellent job of presenting his wide-ranging research in such a readable manner. * Jack Ogden, author of 'Diamonds: An Early History of the King of Gems' *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Fadenheftung
Gewebe-Einband
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 237 mm
Breite: 161 mm
Dicke: 38 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-78914-435-2 (9781789144352)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Tijl Vanneste is a researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations at the Universidade Nova in Lisbon. He is author of Global Trade and Commercial Networks: Eighteenth-Century Diamond Merchants (2011).
