The World According to Color by James Fox

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO COLOR by James Fox received a starred review from Booklist. This non-fiction work provides “A Cultural History,” with chapters on each color (e.g., Yellow: Twilight of the Idols; White: Poisonous Purity; and so on).  Fox is Director of Studies in History of Art at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, and has many acclaimed BBC television documentaries about art. In his first book for a general audience, he describes the history of each major color and some of its geographic and cultural associations, particularly in the art world. For example, it was interesting to note that purple truly is rare in nature and was very expensive to produce so it was found “in only 0.06 percent of paintings [from almost 140,000 reviewed] before the middle of the nineteenth century.” Or, that in China the color red’s “meanings are so positive that China’s stock market shows rising stocks in red, rather than black, the opposite of almost every other country.” Fox devotes roughly one-third of the text to notes, further reading, and a detailed index; he also refers to over 50 plates, but I did not see any illustrations in the preview. This topic is obviously so visually oriented that interested readers may want to investigate The British Library’s program on THE WORLD ACCORDING TO COLOR: