A Perfect Red

A Perfect Red

Colors in general mean different things in different cultures.  However the color red has mainly a common theme, it is mainly associated with power, wealth, and royalty.  As the author indicated it is the most color used in dialog.  I started wondering about what the writer will say about the color red, what raised my curiosity furthermore was how a color can be a commodity.  The first few chapters Amy Greenfield was able to convince her readers about her knowledge in this topic.  She was able to give detailed information of the discovery of the color.  However, as chapters went by she failed to make solid points for her arguments.  I felt I was learning more about kings and cities in different parts of Europe than the color itself. I was hoping she would use red as her main focal point and use people and places as her supporting components.  

I am not able to find any information convincing me to use this book as part of my final project, unless we go back in our definition of commodity history and we expand our definition just to fit The Perfect Red.  The author was not able satisfy my current understanding of commodity, and commodity chain.  In addition some of the information was omitted maybe because it was not her focus point. 

In other hand, this book was very educational about the history of Spain.  I wished I read it before my trip to Spain last summer, recalling back the images in the museums it is evidence the importance of the red color certain period.  Another interesting point I learned in this book was that the color red was used in slave trade as form of payment.