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A carregar... Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the Worldpor Catherine E. McKinley
  
Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro.   ) quondame | Jun 1, 2023 |   ) VivienneR | Aug 29, 2019 | The author does spend some time in a cursory history of indigo: the effect it had on trade and cultures, the romance of the herb. But technical details of indigo production were sparse. The narrative of her visit to Ghana is peopled with characters who should have drawn us in, but instead lay flat on the page. Any of the segments - the story of indigo, her own story, and the people she meets in Africa - would have made a fine little article or story in itself. But these never solidify into a readable whole. ( ) KarenIrelandPhillips | Oct 22, 2013 | A disappointment. (  ) HadriantheBlind | Mar 30, 2013 |  Esta crítica foi escrita no âmbito dos Primeiros Críticos do LibraryThing. ) sydamy | Feb 17, 2013 |
 The book is not without missteps. Promised connections between the author's ancestry and the indigo trade are tenuous at best. The book does provide, however, a blend of scholarship (at which Ms. McKinley excels), cultural analysis and memoir, with a few passages of exotic travel thrown in. Readers also, one has to admit, gain an appreciation for the intoxicating hues of indigo. McKinley sometimes makes her expertise too apparent; her descriptions of the dyeing process aren't always accessible to a reader unfamiliar with the topic. Still, her personal discoveries resonate, and her unique experiences provide a vivid snapshot of the cultures she encountered in Africa. Indigo is something of a mystery. It sits between the more familiar purple and blue of rainbows. And it's the elusive center of Catherine E. McKinley's "Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World" which like its eponymous shade, falls somewhere between more familiar poles. As history, it wanders, sometimes too hastily, through millenniums and contents to trace the reach and power of indigo dye and fabric. As memoir, it gorgeously recounts McKinley's journey to West Africa's teeming markets and churning factories, through funerals and uprisings, to find "the bluest of blues."
For almost five millennia, indigo - a blue pigment obtained from the small green leaf of a parasitic shrub - has been at the centre of turbulent human encounters, prized by slave traders, religious figures and the fashion world. Indigo is the story of this precious dye and its ancient heritage- its relationship to slavery as the 'hidden half' of the transatlantic slave trade, its profound influence on fashion, and its spiritual significance, which is little recognised but no less alive today. It is a richly told story, brimming with electrifying tales of those who shaped the course of colonial history and world economy. But this is also the story of a personal quest- Catherine McKinley's ancestors include a clan of Scots who wore indigo tartan, several generations of Jewish 'rag traders' and Massachusetts textile factory owners, and African slaves who were traded along the same Saharan routes as indigo, where a length of blue cotton could purchase human life. Her journey takes her to nine West African countries and is resplendent with powerful lessons of heritage and history. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumCatherine E. McKinley's book Indigo was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.  Current DiscussionsNenhum(a)Capas populares
 Google Books — A carregar...GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)391.0966Social sciences Customs, Etiquette, Folklore Costume and personal appearanceClassificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia: (2.83)
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