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Blood, Sweat and Earth

The Struggle for Control over the World's Diamonds Throughout History

Tijl Vanneste

$49.99

Hardback

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English
Reaktion Books
01 February 2022
Blood, Sweat and Earth is a hard-hitting historical exposé of the diamond industry, focusing on the exploitation of workers and the environment, and the monopolisation of uncut diamonds, and how little this has changed over time. It describes the use of forced labour and political oppression by Indian sultans, the Portuguese in Brazil, and South African industrialists, as well as the hoarding of diamonds to maintain high prices, from the English East India Company to De Beers.

While recent discoveries of diamond deposits in Siberia, Canada and Australia have brought an end to monopolisation, the book shows that advances in the production of synthetic diamonds have not yet been able to eradicate the exploitation caused by the world’s unquenchable thirst for sparkle.

By:  
Imprint:   Reaktion Books
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 156mm, 
ISBN:   9781789144352
ISBN 10:   1789144353
Pages:   400
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Tijl Vanneste is a researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations at the Universidade Nova in Lisbon. He is author of Global Trade and Commercial Networks: Eighteenth-Century Diamond Merchants (2011).

Reviews for Blood, Sweat and Earth: The Struggle for Control over the World's Diamonds Throughout History

A fascinating and extremely well-researched study of diamonds through the ages, from myths to monopolies. It is a long-awaited inquiry into the part these gems have played in the changing trade patterns over the passing centuries, mirroring the rise of colonialism and trading companies, and the increasing impact of ethical and environmental concerns in recent decades. Vanneste has done an excellent job of presenting his wide-ranging research in such a readable manner. --Jack Ogden, author of Diamonds: An Early History of the King of Gems Diamonds are a global commodity with a rich but violent history. Vanneste is an ideal guide to this history, combining the knowledge of a specialist with an eye for poignant details. He tells the whole story of diamonds, ranging across five centuries and five continents, and shows that the history of trade is also the history of race, gender, labor, and geopolitics. This is a sweeping and provocative history, told with one eye on the present. --Michael Bycroft, University of Warwick, coeditor of Gems in the Early Modern World


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