Guaraná

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

For more information about Seth Garfield, visit the Author Page.

"Seth Garfield’s book fills a gap in the historiography by providing the first thorough study on the history of guaraná. . . . [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

“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

"A deeply researched narrative that illuminates so much more than one seems to see at first glance. . . . Garfield situates guaraná 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

"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

"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

"Beginning with an origin myth—the eyes of a child recast as the guaraná fruit—Garfield gives us a rich and engaging history of this Brazilian plant's use over time as an Indigenous product, a colonial stimulant, an Amazonian commodity engaging nationalistic dynamics, and a drink that has now come to rival Coca-Cola as a kind of national beverage. A terrific book."—Susanna Hecht, University of California, Los Angeles