Full Spectrum

How the Science of Color Made Us Modern

By: Adam Rogers

Narrated by: Michael Crouch

"Informative and entertaining...Rogers is a seasoned raconteur, unreeling an eons-spanning tale with skill." —Wall Street Journal

A lively account of our age-old quest for brighter colors, which changed the way we see the world, from the best-selling author of Proof: The Science of Booze

From kelly green to millennial pink, our world is graced with a richness of colors. But our human-made colors haven’t always matched nature’s kaleidoscopic array. To reach those brightest heights required millennia of remarkable innovation and a fascinating exchange of ideas between science and craft that’s allowed for the most luminous manifestations of our built and adorned world.

In Full Spectrum, Rogers takes us on that globe-trotting journey, tracing an arc from the earliest humans to our digitized, synthesized present and future. We meet our ancestors mashing charcoal in caves, Silk Road merchants competing for the best ceramics, and textile artists cracking the centuries-old mystery of how colors mix, before shooting to the modern era for high-stakes corporate espionage and the digital revolution that’s rewriting the rules of color forever.

In prose as vibrant as its subject, Rogers opens the door to Oz, sharing the liveliest events of an expansive human quest—to make a brighter, more beautiful world—and along the way, proving why he’s “one of the best science writers around.”*
*National Geographic

Color, who knew?

A history of mankind’s use of color from prehistoric time into the modern era. The author segues and digresses into all kinds of interesting detail and minutiae about pigments, history and the effects of color on human psyche. Interesting but you DO have to really listen to get the gist.

Great book

Incredible! Well written! Informative and compelling!! A must read for Artists, scientists and anyone that’s sees!!!

Rogers leaves you with a royal flush?

It’s that good. Many colors of goodness from this book. His French his for crap, he will get that, I read well all till the ends, but his history of color/colour is brilliant! I love the writing so much that I bought the book after listening to the wonderful Audible performance! Fantastic content - a must have for any artist, art historian, designer, or just plain history fan. Wonderful!