{"product_id":"american-baroque-pearls-and-the-nature-of-empire-14921700-9781469666259","title":"American Baroque  Pearls and the Nature of Empire","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCharts Spain's exploitation of Caribbean pearl fisheries to trace the genesis of its maritime empire. In the 1500s, licit and illicit trade in the jewel gave rise to global networks, connecting the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean to the pearl-producing regions of the Chesapeake and northern Europe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmerican Baroque\u003c\/i\u003e is an original, solidly documented monograph rich in archival sources that anyone with an interest in the history of commodity trade, colonial labor regimes, luxurious material culture, or, indeed, pearls, in the early modern Iberian world and beyond, should read. . . . [It is] commendable in its attention to detail, courageous in its geographical breadth, and innovative in its subject matter.\" - \u003ci\u003eWinterthur Portfolio\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eAmerican Baroque\u003c\/i\u003e uses pearls as a heuristic to explore Spanish imperialism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. . . . Warsh demonstrates an Iberian, and subsequently a wider European, fascination with pearls as metonym for maritime empire. . . . These glimpses—missionary tracts, sunken treasure, stolen booty, valued possessions, subtle iconographies—are mined with considerable skill.\" - \u003ci\u003eJournal of Early Modern History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An ambitious book. . . Warsh deserves high praise for thoroughly and thoughtfully exploring a topic that has rarely been treated outside scientific or gemological circles. The range of archival sources she exploited is astonishing.\" - \u003ci\u003eBrill Journals\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Explores how pearls were extracted, circulated, and valued and situates them within wider frameworks of imperial expansion, consumption, and global trade. . . . A carefully researched and beautifully illustrated book.\" - \u003ci\u003eAmerican Historical Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Revelatory . . . . Warsh constructs her account with such disciplined clarity that the experience of reading her remains one of lightness and even of luminescence.\" - \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Warsh manages to cover two centuries and touch on a wide variety of topics in a concise volume. . . . Historians and students of the Spanish empire, luxury trade, the Columbian exchange, and world history will find this a valuable addition to existing scholarship. . . . Today most people know how [pearls] are formed, but with \u003ci\u003eAmerican Baroque\u003c\/i\u003e, we now know that they in turn contributed to the formation of empires.\" - \u003ci\u003eHispanic American Historical Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An ambitious book . . . Warsh deserves high praise for thoroughly and thoughtfully exploring a topic that has rarely been treated outside scientific or gemological circles. The range of archival sources she exploited is astonishing.\" - \u003ci\u003eNew West Indian Guide\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A richly researched contribution to the literature on commodities in global history. . . . Quite convincing in encouraging readers to see that pearls were much more than a bauble; they had the power to shape an empire's trajectory over two centuries.\" - \u003ci\u003eJournal of American History\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"The University of North Carolina Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49530529612119,"sku":"9781469666259","price":26.36,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781469666259.jpg?v=1731879613","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/american-baroque-pearls-and-the-nature-of-empire-14921700-9781469666259","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}