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Title: Diamond: The History of a Cold-Blooded Love Affair by Matthew Hart ISBN: 0-452-28370-1 Publisher: Plume Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (21 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Everything you wanted to know about Diamonds but....
Comment: After hearing a bit about the cable-based feature exposing the incredible monopolistic hold De Beers has on the diamond industry and the associated corruption, crime and cruelty associated with diamond mining and the inherent competition, I became acutely aware that the bobbles adorning our fingers, wrists, necks and ears came at a very high price--human as well as financial. To my surprise, I ran across DIAMOND and hoped it would delve deeper into this mysteriously clandestine industry. Matthew Hart unravels the mystery quite well.
Hart has a leg up on most journalists penning a book on this trade. His position as editor of the industry trade magazine, "Rapaport Diamond Report," provides him with the expertise to report on this cabal industry as well as the background and knowledge to impart the history of the diamond trade. However, Hart does the reader one better by being a genuinely gifted storyteller.
Hart lays out the basic foundation and history of diamond geology and its shrouded history. From yarns about hustlers and theives to the geological formations known as pipes, Hart imparts the beauty and dark side of the trade. And, as mentioned, Hart casts his line into the vast monopoly known as De Beers. He explains how De Beers has managed to control the flow of diamonds not only to the wholesale "site" markets but, more recently, to the retail market as well. We learn how the Oppenheimer family has ruled this industry with an iron fist and a deft touch. Further, and strangely to this reader, we learn the origins of the De Beers name...a totally unexpected twist.
Hart informs the reader of great finds and great adventures. He focuses on several large diamonds discoveries - an 81-carat pink from the jungles of Brazil and the discovery of Canada's first major diamond mine. One of the more adventurous stories is that of Eira Thomas, a 24-year-old female geologist who played a major role in the Canadian find. We learn of the painstaking 3-year study and comiseration prior to the actual cutting of the 599-carat Centenary diamond as well as the discovery of the 3,107-carat Cullinan diamond (the largest "rough" on record). Hart even takes the reader behind the scenes to an advertising agency where a mentally exhausted executive, in a 11th-hour blitz of creative brio, coins the enduring phrase "A Diamond is Forever."
Hart is engaging, cogent and very well informed. Anyone wanting to learn more about this industry and the mysterious wonder of the "beautiful rock," will find this book fascinating reading.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession!
Comment: Like hard, everlasting roses, there are hundreds of shades of red diamonds alone, from "water" pink to vivid red. As Matthew Hart's Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession skillfully recounts, gemstone diamonds inhabit a diffuse, subtle palette of hues, as well as displaying such values as weight, shape, and clarity. Similarly, any book that covers the storied history of diamonds will have its own gleam and character, low on some qualities and high on others. Diamond begins with the recent discovery of a "large pink" in a Brazilian riverbed. The find sends miners, dealers, consultants, and investors into a frenzy over a paper packet, the contents of which cause economic and aesthetic ripples as far away as Toronto, Johannesburg, and London. The book then moves through various aspects of diamond lore - the significance of legend in the value of a diamond; the chain of ownership from mine shaft to display case - and on to science, entrepreneurism, and corporate tectonic shifts in the vast diamond trade empires of India, Brazil, and Africa. There is also the sheer romance of the whole enterprise, deftly conveyed in the sections on the spoils of queens and the booty of thieves. Hart wisely avoids those aspects of diamonds that long ago lost their lustre - thankfully, we're spared zircon-like insights into Marilyn Monroe movies - and instead brings passion and thoroughness to such unlikely dramas as the role of helicopters in Northern Canadian mineral exploration and the contemporary pressures on the hermetic, overlord-like De Beers cartel. But straying from the mine face can be a tricky business, particularly when it comes to the links between the diamond industry and official corruption. Hart's considerable political insights into the diamond trade sometimes fail by omission - for example, during a discussion of the role of diamond profits in the agonies of Sierra Leone, readers may wonder why Hart omits a wider look at the century-long exploitation of black African workers in the mines. Still, there's more than enough fire and ice in Diamond to satisfy the connoisseur in all of us.
Rating: 4
Summary: Story of a cold blooded love affair
Comment: This is a good general account of the modern day diamond business, with the right mix of technical detail and story telling. The reader learns about how diamonds are formed, found and exploited, as well as the romance and large personalities behind the trade. As with most accounts of the gem-trade, the story inevitably revolves around the Goliath of the industry - the de Beers cartel, but Hart goes a long way to explaining how they rose to eminence and how they manage to exert so much control, even if this control is now waning. He also includes interesting details on the differing stages of diamond sales, from the selling of 'rough' to the marketing of the finished article that most of us associate with diamonds.
Hart is to be commended for including a section on conflict diamonds, and how the trade in these is effecting the lives of thousands for the worse. He is cynical about how much the industry will do to stop the trade of these tainted gems, but the reader gets the feeling that his cynicism is not misplaced - much of his story is taken up with the greed and backstabbing involved in the search for and trading of this precious commodity. This definitely is a cold blooded love affair. But Hart manages to tell it as it is, leaving the reader to decide if diamonds really are worth the trouble and money that they currently command.
There are few complaints about this book, only minor quibbles. One is very partisan - I would have liked to have read more about the Argyle diamonds of Australia, and how they have been attempting to make brown diamonds (champagne and cognacs to be more romantic) fashionable. I also would have expected more on the trading houses of Antwerp and Tel Aviv, but Hart was obviously more concerned with the swashbuckling nature of exploration. But as stated, these are minor quibbles - this is still a fascinating read.
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Title: The Last Empire: De Beers, Diamonds, and the World by Stefan Kanfer ISBN: 0374524262 Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Pub. Date: 01 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $32.00 |
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Title: Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the World's Most Precious Stones by Greg Campbell ISBN: 0813339391 Publisher: Perseus Books Group Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Nature of Diamonds by George E. Harlow, American Museum of Natural History ISBN: 0521629357 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: Glitter & Greed: The Secret World of the Diamond Cartel by J. P. Roberts, Janine Roberts ISBN: 0971394296 Publisher: Disinformation Company Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic by Kevin Krajick ISBN: 0716740265 Publisher: W.H. Freeman & Company Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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