This is the story of cochineal. In fact this is many stories about cochineal - including artisan harvesting in Mexico, the shift to plantation style agricultural product, coveted export, botanist dilemma, and a return to artisan dye stuff.

Greenfield is a scholar unravelling a story about a multi century fad - the color red. She begins the investigation by describing the cultural desire for brilliant hues to separate oneself in society. Red and black being the hardest colors to create and thus the most desired colors by aristocrats. As we enter the age of colonialism, Greenfield takes us on a world tour. Cortes invades Mexico and finds many things, including a small insect growing on the nopal cactus. The Mexicans made a fantastic red dye from the cochineal insect and soon Spain began shipping it to Europe in massive quantities - over 60 tons in one year alone.

Other countries soon began to resent being hostage to Spanish trade and their precious red dye. Many attempts were made to discover the origin of the cochineal. Was it plant or animal? The great minds of the time decided it was both - a fruit or berry that became an insect. Unable to even decide on what the cochineal was, other countries turned to piracy first - hijacking cargo ships to get ahold of the dye. Unsatisfied, they continued their quest for the insect. When the emerging science of microscopy helped to decide the plant vs insect debate, countries turned to espionage. Many attempts were made to capture live cochineal and raise it in different colonial empires, but the cochineal is fragile and poorly understood - the male and the female are different and although there are many breeds of cochineal, only the Mexican domesticated cochineal provided the levels of dye to be economically viable.

Unsuccessful in colonial pursuits, Germany turned to an emerging science of industrial chemistry and their pursuit of a synthetic equivalent for cochineal red via work on coal byproducts led to the rise of firms like BASF and Bayer. Expertise in synthetic dyes and the mordant chemicals needed to bind the dye to fabrics, Germany took an early lead that translated into chemical weapons during the first world war. After, the science of dyes spread quickly and the cochineal nearly vanished. Now, artisan weavers in Mexico are reviving the craft to a much smaller audience.

Greenfield is very through. This story was similar to a James Burke chain-of-events tale, except with greater depth and detail. At times, it was a little slow, but mostly an enjoyable read.

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