Cultured Travel Guide Books - The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire |
 |
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $5.75
Your Save: $ 9.25 ( 62% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 553.82
EAN: 9780312339708
ISBN: 0312339704
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2007-06-12
Publisher: Picador
Release Date: 2007-06-12
Studio: Picador |
| Spotlight Customer Reviews: |
Customer Rating:  
Summary: Eye Opening
Comment: Incredibly interesting book about the world of diamonds. Make no mistake, its not a novel or a story, its an expose. The book takes you around the world to almost all the continents and just about every country involved in the diamond trade. A little lengthy at times with stories that are barely related to the subject, so I can't give it a full 5 stars.
Read this book if you love to learn. Read this book after you have bought a diamond ring and you'll feel like crap. Read it before you buy and you'll opt for a ruby or emerald instead.
Amazing.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's EVERYONE'S Fault
Comment: While there are many great aspects to this book, perhaps the most notable was the manner in which Zollner described the interconnectedness of countries all over the world in creating the problem of conflict stones. Rather than simply focusing on the warring zones, Zollner talked extensively about the roles different countries have played, and continue to play, in creating the diamond industry as the public knows it. For a book specifically focused on the conflict aspect of the diamond trade, start with "Blood Diamond" by Greg Campbell, and return to this for details of different players (most importantly, De Beers).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Taking the Gloss Off Diamonds
Comment: While many of us have heard or assumed that diamonds are a hyped product, this book truly uncovers the ways that consumers and the media have been "played" by diamond merchants for more than a century. The author does an incredible job of tracking down diamonds in every corner of the world, getting access to mines, creeks, and lakes in Arctic wastelands, as well as the DeBeers wholesale office in Holland. To have even one of the experiences he details would be exciting; to do them all, and to have the nerve to ask the tough questions when he's in those places, is extraordinary. While I could do without his musings on his lost love and failed engagement, I guess those are useful framing devices for a story about how diamonds represent love to many of us around the world. I guess I'm glad my wife wanted an engagement ring with sapphires, not diamonds.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Diamond Is Forever Tarnished
Comment: The problem of "blood diamonds" has been much-discussed lately, and here Tom Zoellner tackles not just that human rights issue but all the good, bad, and ugly details of the diamond industry. In the process, Zoellner has created a very informative and outstandingly written historical and economic study of one of the world's ugliest businesses. Here we find that the De Beers cartel continues to engage in (very) old-school monopolist and mercantilist practices - insidiously maintaining false scarcity and high prices, ruthlessly muscling out competitors, and manipulating cultural opinions about diamonds via heavy-handed advertising. For example, you may think that the Western tradition of the diamond engagement ring goes back for centuries, but actually this "tradition" was created by De Beers in a 1938 ad campaign. Modern practices aren't much better, as recent controversies over blood diamonds and child labor have been smoothed over with shallow sloganeering and insincere promises of self-regulation.
Impressively, Zoellner visited several god-forsaken locations in his investigation of all aspects of the diamond business, from Central African Republic to Arctic Canada to Siberia, and interviewed everyone from blue-blooded retail plutocrats in Europe to the lowliest exploited subsistence miner in the Third World. Zoellner also includes enlightening ruminations on why humans are willing to place so much power, wealth, and prestige in what are basically common shiny pebbles; how thin and artificial their sentimental value really is; and how entire cultures and economies have been manipulated by the powerful few who control the market for this artificially expensive luxury good. If you think a diamond is forever, ask yourself for whom it's forever. Zoellner has provided excellent food for thought, for when you next consider purchasing an overhyped pebble that you can barely afford and almost certainly don't need. [~doomsdayer520~]
Customer Rating:
Summary: Perhaps it should titled Monopoly, Marketing, & Murder
Comment: Here's a few questions you might ask your jeweler before buying a diamond ring. What's the diamond's history? Where was it mined? Was it swallowed and stolen by a mine worker? Was it taked from the bowels of a murdered mine worker? Did it finance a war? Was it grown in a machine? Was it cut by children in India? How many diamonds does De Beers hold in inventory to keep prices high?
A fascinating, well written expose of the diamond industry.
|
| More Reviews |
| Editorial Reviews: |
An American Library Association Notable Book
When he proposed to his girlfriend, Tom Zoellner gave what is expected of every American man--a diamond engagement ring. But when the relationship broke apart, he was left with a used diamond that began to haunt him. His obsession carried him around the globe; from the "blood diamond" rings of Africa; to the sweltering polishing factories of India; to mines above the Arctic Circle; to illegal diggings in Brazil; to the London headquarters of De Beers, the secretive global colossus that has dominated the industry for more than a century and permanently carved the phrase "A diamond is forever" on the psyche. An adventure story in the tradition of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief, The Heartless Stone is a voyage into the cold heart of the world's most unyielding gem.
|
|
|
|
|
