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Rating: 5 of 5. Diamond: The History of a Cold-Blooded Love Affair, by Matthew Hart. An in-depth chronicle of the inner workings of the international diamond trade. Necessarily, since two-thirds of the trade was until recently controlled by De Beers Consolidated Mines, this book is at the same time the story of the rise of the South African corporation founded by Cecil Rhodes. Stylistically as smooth as the membrane of a Yellowknife polished pink, the tale is eminently readable and takes one deep into the labyrinth of monopolistic practices such as De Beers’ take-it-or-leave-it Antwerp boxes, the varieties of theft that occur at every stage of production, and the half-hearted and futile efforts to restrict the trade in conflict diamonds.
Marred by inferior paper and renderings, the fault of our corporate offender of the day, Penguin Books, the text strangely omits any discussion of the industrial use of diamonds, while the chapter on marketing neglects to mention what is well-known among anthropologists—that gems in general and diamonds in particular unconsciously represent sperm. Therefore, De Beers did not forge an artificial tie between diamonds and “love” so much as capitalize on a timeless element of courtship, with acceptance of one implying acceptance of the other.
Hart, on the other hand, broaches the modern trend of invisible branding of diamonds, a potential solution to the perennial illicit trade in blood diamonds that fuels interminable unrest in several African countries.
