Guarana

Seth Garfield is professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. His most recent book is In Search of the Amazon.

"A deeply researched narrative that illuminates so much more than one seems to see at first glance. . . . Garfield situates guarana within a series of different systems of knowledge and culture over a period that stretches from the earliest moments of colonization of the Amazon to the present. "--H-LatAm "A luminous social biography of a single Amazonian fruit. Historian Seth Garfield reinvigorates the abiding relevance of the history of commodities as an entry point into Latin American history. . . . Elegantly written and immensely interdisciplinary."--Not Even Past "A powerful, evocative book, a work of deep scholarship . . . It offers an understanding of how a native plant is connected to so much else."--Journal of Latin American Geography "Seth Garfield's Guarana is well written and finely researched, and its bibliography is a treasure trove of little-known historical material. I thoroughly recommend this book to the readers."--Economic Botany "Seth Garfield's book fills a gap in the historiography by providing the first thorough study on the history of guarana. . . . [This is a] complex, well-connected, superb book, which will be of interest to a variety of scholars from various disciplines including those who are non-Brazilianists."--The Americas "This is an impressive scholarly achievement and a significant contribution to the historiography. . . . The book is at turns cultural history, agricultural history, environmental history, and history of science; each new analytical lens is elaborated in detail and carefully contextualized."--H-Environment