Simon Flexner portrays William Henry Welch as probably the biggest contributor in helping establish the backbone for medicine / pathology as we know it today. Simon Flexner was a very good friend of Welch's, and this source is one of the best secondary sources available to explore what is basically a patriotic American who helped his country in every single way (including the war) but did not get the fame or credit he deserved because to achieve all that this man had, he could not afford to concentrate on any one topic. This is a book which has enabled me to access what his most intermediate friends described him as, and not only was it a good source, but also an excellent read. If you want to know why American medicine really reached its pinnacle, this book is the answer.

Mauve is part of an increasingly popular genre - Small Things That Mean A Lot. As (practically) the first artificial dye in the world, derived from coal tar, Mauve not only set the pattern for every other synthetic shade but also formed the basis for many other products in the new chemical world. This book tells this story and also that of its inventor, a Brit named William Perkin who discovered Mauve by accident when still at college. Mauve became the hit of London and Paris, though its inventor got rich mostly by making other colors.
The book runs the risk of being a little thin (Perkin is not a hugely interesting man), but Garfield keeps his work relevant and vibrant by some very elegant writing in which clever linkages are made between a vast array of subjects. I recommend this title for its insights into historical and modern fashion trends and some fascinating scientific history.
Amy De

I received Mauve this Christmas and loved it. It's a hybrid of a book, a primer in science, Victoriana, fashion and color. It's not so much a biography of Sir William Perkin, the man on the cover, as a history of mauve since his invention (1850s) to the present. Simon Garfield made me believe that the whole world can be seen in terms of a particular color, and he weaves in some great historical detail to support his case.
Mauve was really the first artificial dye to be made, and became the toast of London and Paris once the Empress Eugenie found that it suited her crinolines like nothing else. After mauve, any artificial dye was possible, and the world really did change. Even if it isn't your color of choice, I recommended this book as a very interesting read.
(By the way, I'm not Pat Barker the British author!)

Simon Garfield has written a fascinating book about the history of something we take utterly for granted, synthetic dyes, how they came about, and how they changed the world of invention. The book focuses on the story of William Perkin, who, as a young man accidentally invents a new kind of dye that does not fade or age the way natural dyes do. From that point on, his challenge is to find a place for his invention in society, and Garfield chronicles admirably the struggles Perkin faced and the impact his struggle had on the field of chemistry, which as a result of this new dye, changes from a field of intellectual scientific research to a field of commercial potential. Garfield's writing is engaging and absorbing, and this is a wonderfully illuminating book.