Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73894 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-28
• Released on: 2007-09-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.ca
"Diamonds are forever," goes the familiar refrain, and we take the truth of that statement for granted just as we take for granted the inherent value of the much sought-after object. That phrase, though, was actually coined in the 1950s by a copywriter named Frances Gerety working on an ad campaign for the biggest diamond company in the world. That's just one nugget of information contained in Diamond, Matthew Hart's exploration of diamonds and the industry that has grown up around them. The Toronto-based journalist journeys from the wilds of South American to the barren Arctic landscape of Canada, the jungles of South Africa, and the back streets of India. Stops along the way include geologists' digs, a jeweller's cutting room, dealers' backrooms, and the boardrooms of industry titan De Beers. Some of Diamond, like a chapter in which a group of small-scale miners unearth "a large pink" on the Rio Abaete in Brazil, reads like first-rate airport fiction. Or a passage in which a diamond-cutter goes to work on a 599-carat "top-white" discovered in South Africa: "Gabi Tolkowsky studied the Centenary diamond for a year, discovering the magnitude of the challenge. As he scrutinized the larger cracks with a microscope, he saw, at the deepest point of penetration, networks of much tinier cracks and... a bubble. It was these infinitesimal bubbles that frightened Tolkowsky most." By the time the cutter has finished his examination, made models, and decided on the shape the diamond should be, three years have gone by.

Not all of Diamond glitters--those whose eyes glaze over in the presence of too many numbers and dollar signs may find the backroom shenanigans a challenge, and one dig in particular in the Canadian wilderness seems to go on, well, forever. But the nuts and bolts of locating the mines, the actual cutting and shaping, the ultimate fate of the larger ones, methods of theft, and the creation of a demand for an essentially useless item ("Within three years of Gerety's late-night inspiration, 80 percent of American marriages were starting with a diamond ring") make Diamond a fascinating read for anyone with more than a passing curiosity about these bits of carbon that have become synonymous with both love and money. --Shawn Conner

From Publishers Weekly
Any book that details the diamond trade must contend with the brilliance of Stefan Kanfer's 1993 gem, The Last Empire. And Hart's book picks up roughly where Empire left off. When Hart (editor of the New York trade magazine Rapaport Diamond Report) traces the diamond frenzy that struck Canada in the 1990s, his writing is as polished and fiery as when Kanfer re-created the machinations of Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato, the Romulus and Remus of the South African diamond cartel. But when the two mine the same territory, Hart's book looks like indicator minerals in comparison: Hart is less successful when he depicts De Beers's origins, the creation of the company's monopoly, and Ernest Oppenheimer, who turned De Beers into a profitable company. Hart, however, has a good eye for intriguing figures in the industry, including a part-wolf sled dog named Thor who was suspected of espionage. In the end, the author expertly takes readers into theft-riven African mines, the back rooms of Brazilian dealers, the polishing rooms in both midtown Manhattan and India's slums, and the sorting rooms in London.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
No other gem holds the allure and mystery of the diamond. In this book, journalist and author Hart (Golden Giant, 1985) offers a brief history of this supreme gem and the industry surrounding it. Part science text, part business history, part biography, and part travelog, the book provides some fascinating glimpses into the world of diamonds but can appear disjointed. Hart writes about South Africa's long-lived De Beers cartel and the attempts to unseat it, the unscrupulous characters of the trade, and the many aspects of the business, from miners to retailers. Taken separately, the anecdotes are interesting, even engaging, but throughout the book, the reader is left feeling that there is more to the story. A significant portion of the work covers the recent diamond finds in Canada, which Kevin Krajick's Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic (W. H. Freeman, 2001) covers in greater detailed study. Recommended for large business and business history collections. (Index not seen.) Mike Miller, Dallas P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Story of a cold blooded love affair
This is a good general account of the modern day diamond business, with the right mix of technical detail and story telling. The reader learns about how diamonds are formed, found and exploited, as well as the romance and large personalities behind the trade. As with most accounts of the gem-trade, the story inevitably revolves around the Goliath of the industry - the de Beers cartel, but Hart goes a long way to explaining how they rose to eminence and how they manage to exert so much control, even if this control is now waning. He also includes interesting details on the differing stages of diamond sales, from the selling of 'rough' to the marketing of the finished article that most of us associate with diamonds.

Hart is to be commended for including a section on conflict diamonds, and how the trade in these is effecting the lives of thousands for the worse. He is cynical about how much the industry will do to stop the trade of these tainted gems, but the reader gets the feeling that his cynicism is not misplaced - much of his story is taken up with the greed and backstabbing involved in the search for and trading of this precious commodity. This definitely is a cold blooded love affair. But Hart manages to tell it as it is, leaving the reader to decide if diamonds really are worth the trouble and money that they currently command.

There are few complaints about this book, only minor quibbles. One is very partisan - I would have liked to have read more about the Argyle diamonds of Australia, and how they have been attempting to make brown diamonds (champagne and cognacs to be more romantic) fashionable. I also would have expected more on the trading houses of Antwerp and Tel Aviv, but Hart was obviously more concerned with the swashbuckling nature of exploration. But as stated, these are minor quibbles - this is still a fascinating read.

A good book that makes you want to know more
After reading "Diamond", I wanted to know more. More about what the diamond trade has done for (and to) the people of Africa, about what the search for diamonds has done to the environment of Canada, and about what the whole of the diamond trade means to the world economy. What would a diamond really be worth today were it not for DeBeers? How and why did Cecil Rhodes start endow the Rhodes scholor program at Oxford?

loosely strung theme
First, this book can be read in two sittings. With that in my mind, most of its flaws can be forgiven. Chief among these is the fact that the book is essentially a collection of anecdotes and stray stories, rather than a straightforward historical narrative or discussion. The end result is not very gratifying and only slightly edifying. (The most interesting factoid: De Beer's marketing suggestion that one spend 2 months' salary on an engagement ring, is 1 month in Europe and 3 months in Japan.) Some minor, but frustrating factual inconsistencies, e.g., the # of grades into which De Beers sorts its diamonds, as well as some sloppy editing.

It's funny that the book's cover includes a blurb from Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief. She pulls off this style of complex storytelling much more effectively and with a much clearer thesis that runs consistently throughout.