Books : Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 553.82
EAN: 9780802713681
ISBN: 0802713688
Label: Walker & Company
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 276
Publication Date: November 01, 2001
Publisher: Walker & Company
Studio: Walker & Company
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Product Description:
On a hot morning in May, 1999, three garimpeiros (small-scale miners) found a large pink diamond in the muddy waters of the Abaete River in Brazil, a discovery that captivated the entire diamond trade. Beginning with this dramatic and revealing tale, Matthew Hart embarks on a journey into an obsessive, largely hidden, and utterly fascinating world.
The geology of diamonds explains how hard it is to find them. Diamonds are accidents of nature, carbon crystals compressed deep underground billions of years ago; parts of them, it is even thought, may predate the Earth itself. They are also elusive, carried to the surface only in slender volcanoes known as "pipes," most of which are actually barren. Weaving science and history throughout his story, Hart follows the diamond trail around the globe-from the basement room where Gabi Tolkowsky, the world's greatest cutter, faced the 599-carat Centenary diamond, to the fog-bound smugglers' paradise of Africa's Diamond Coast, to the London sales rooms of De Beers, which manages the longest-running cartel in modern business history. The diamond story is peopled by characters like William Goldberg, the flamboyant Manhattan diamantaire, who are as memorable as the stones they seek.
Though many of the world's most famous stones had already been found, the modern history of diamonds began in 1869 when a native boy in South Africa found a large crystal on a farm, and Hart recreates the dramatic rush that brought Cecil Rhodes, Ernest Oppenheimer, and a diminutive adventurer named Barney Barnato their fortune. The great cartel that arose would not be shaken for more than a century: then, as Hart chronicles, a sensational race for diamonds erupted in the 1990s in Canada's Northwest Territories, and an audacious, young, female geologist, Eira Thomas, against all odds and enormous competition, discovered near the Arctic Circle one of the richest diamond fields in the world. Hart explores the physics of diamonds-the way light and color move through a stone- as he describes the suspense that attends the cutting of a priceless gem. He portrays the lives of the countless diamond cutters in India who have transformed the industry by making valuable the tiny stones that were once considered worthless. And he examines the ingenuity behind DeBeers's marketing, which has "forged a link between something people do not need, diamonds, and something they do need, love."
Diamonds also have their dark side. "Malfeasance rustles in the background of the diamond world like a snake in dry grass," writes Hart as he documents the relentless and ingenious thievery that pervades the business, and the even more damaging revelations of "war diamonds" financing brutal conflicts in Africa. Who will rule diamonds now, and what form the once-secretive business will take, are the issues of the day.
By revealing the layers and inner workings of the diamond industry, and the inherent excitement and human drama that sustain it, Matthew Hart has captured the essence of an exotic substance and its world as surely as a diamond captures light: bending it, reflecting it, and returning it in a blaze of color.
Average Rating: 
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An in-depth chronicle of the inner workings of the international diamond trade. Necessarily, since two-thirds of the trade was until recently controlled by De Beers Consolidated Mines, this book is at the same time the story of the rise of the South African corporation founded by Cecil Rhodes. Stylistically as smooth as the membrane of a Yellowknife polished pink, the tale is eminently readable and takes one deep into the labyrinth of monopolistic practices such as De Beers' take-it-or-leave-it Antwerp ... Read More
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"Diamond" is very illuminating. This book gives a great summarized history of the diamond business as it exists today: the DeBeers monopoly, the Koh-i-Noor, the recent exploration in Canada's Arctic, etc. It also explores some of the geology behind diamond mining, the art of cutting, polishing, and shaping the gems, and various smaller issues within the diamond trade. Hart does all of these things while maintaining something of a narrative continuity. It reads like a long, uninterrupted conversation with ... Read More
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Overall this was a great read. I knew nothing about diamonds. This book was mesmerizing with its explanation of how diamonds are formed, how people search for them, and how key players in the diamond industry rose to power and ran/run their companies. It was fascinating to learn about the stories surrounding some of the worlds premier diamonds; I never knew, or cared, but now I would certainly like to see diamonds like the Great Star of Africa, the Centenary, and the Koh-i-Nor.
Unfortunately ... Read More
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Matthew Hart, former mining editor of the Rapaport Diamond Report, opens "Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession" with the journey of a spectacular 81-carat pink diamond, from the "garimpeiros" who plucked it from Brazil's Abaete River in 1999 until its disappearance into the hands of a private collector. The saga provides a window on the idiosyncrasies and uncertainty of moving a truly rare diamond through the trade and a seductive introduction to this recent history of the diamond business, which ... Read More
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Though my background in diamonds - not counting some jewellery I got my better half sometime ago - is almost nil, I picked up the book because of the attractive title and jacket ... and I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the journey narrated by Matthew Hart.
The book, peppered by anecdotes and stories, presents a great overview of the complex diamond trade. The book is as much about globalization of business as it is about shining stones for which consumers pay millions. And this is where the ... Read More
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