Explore the Fascinating History of Indigo: The Color That Captivated the World

Chantal: Un ouvrage passionnant, à lire comme un roman.

France on Jun 15, 2023

Meg Oneill: Excellent thanks x

United Kingdom on Oct 24, 2017

Raven Moore: Unfortunately, Catherine McKinley’s “Indigo” is another one of those books that could go grossly overlooked because it’s informative. Truly her search for indigo revealed the severe tie between cloth and world history everywhere.

A reader will get much more than the story of indigo in the world of textiles. In this narrative ethnography, full of desire and color, the reader will be introduced to the Nigerian medical doctor who discovers a cure for AIDS but then just a few pages later the reader gets folded back into cloth while learning that the Netherlands was the fourth-largest, slave-trading nation whose Dutch textiles made up 57 percent of the goods exchanged for human lives during their slave trade. Cloth constituted more than 50 percent of European exports to West Africa on a whole by the late 1600s—so that we see the incredible importance of cloth to West Africans that they would exchange lives for it. Concurrently, abolitionists over in America were staging boycotts of indigo and all of this information goes very well towards feeding the reader with the zeitgeist of the times.

Cloth takes on its own persona in "Indigo." McKinley makes cloth come...

United States on Jan 25, 2017

linda rogers: I have just written a quest book, Bozuk, broken in Turkish about a Canadian woman searching for her family roots in Smyrna. This book came to me at a perfect time because it is a parallel journey. I love the information, the quest story and the poetic writing.

Canada on Mar 01, 2016

Ieva Krumina: Thank you for the useful book!

United Kingdom on Dec 22, 2015

Dorothy Kennedy: I enjoyed Indigo and yet it was rather difficult to follow with so many unfamiliar places mentioned and where the author travelled to. Unless one is interested in the origin, etc. of true Indigo I would say it would be not all that interesting.

Canada on Aug 18, 2014

BBWheeler: I read Catherine McKinley's "Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World" not knowing quite what to expect. I knew it was a memoir and a searching, but didn't know it was also deep research into Africa and the history and context of African textiles and culture.
To me this is the PERFECT kind of memoir or story. It combines very personal passions and uncertainties along with a deep and lived experience. Because Ms. McKinley was doing a kind of ethnographic/qualitative/experimental cultural studies/memoir, many readers will not get it. This type of writing requires a sophisticated and poetic sensibility along with an interest in examining the connections between culture and the self.

I found Ms. McKinley's writing to be a type of "indigo" in itself: seductive and elusive. Yes, there are some typo/ editing issues about the dates of things--and these can be easily remedied with some cursory research-as reviewers have done here. Yet, history and culture are not only about facts and figures but are also about passions, questions and interpretations. This travelogue/memoir/cultural exploration of African textiles is an interdisciplinary journey in the experience of...

United States on Oct 29, 2012

Karoda: with Ms McKinley via this book in search of Indigo was absolutely enthralling! I was so captivated that I only wished it hadn't moved so fast and was over so quickly. What I thought was going to be a straight-forward academic read turned out to be a personal exploration and adventure full of passion and chance. I only wished I hadn't downloaded it but instead purchased the actual book. The downloaded copy also didn't have the photos with the book which was disappointing also, but after befriending the author via Facebook I was able to see some of them. Reading her book has led me to exploring more about African botanical impact in the world.

United States on Oct 05, 2011