You’ll finish [Greenfield’s] book with new respect for color, especially for red. With A Perfect Red, she does for it what Mark Kurlansky in Salt did for that common commodity.
- Houston Chronicle
Interweaving mystery, empire, and adventure, Amy Butler Greenfield’s masterful popular history offers a window onto a world far different from our own: a world in which the color red was rare and precious - a source of wealth and power for those who could unlock its secrets. And in this world nothing was more prized than cochineal, a red dye that produced the brightest, strongest red the Old World had ever seen.
A Perfect Red recounts the story of this legendary red dye, from its cultivation by the ancient Mexicans and discovery by 16th-century Spanish conquistadors to the European pirates, explorers, alchemists, scientists, and spies who joined in the chase to unlock its secrets, a chase that lasted more than three centuries. It evokes with style and verve this history of a grand obsession, of intrigue, empire, and adventure in pursuit of the most desirable color on earth.
What did it take to control the color of power, desire, and royalty?
- A True Microhistory: Following the model of Mark Kurlansky’s Salt, this book uncovers how a single commodity - a tiny insect - shaped global empires, economies, and art for centuries.
- The Spanish Empire’s Secret: Learn how Spanish conquistadors discovered cochineal in ancient Mexican marketplaces and jealously guarded the source of the world’s most vibrant red dye for over 300 years.
- Espionage and Piracy on the High Seas: Join the chase as European pirates, spies, alchemists, and scientists risk everything to break Spain’s monopoly and steal the coveted insect for their own empires.
- A Rich Narrative Nonfiction: Meticulously researched and told with the verve of an adventure novel, this popular history reveals the intrigue and obsession behind the world’s quest for a perfect red.