Yup, everything you ever wanted to know about oranges and growing them and turning them into juice...Surprisingly interesting and marvelously readable as always with McPhee. I suspect the orange-growing and concentrate-making industries may have changed in big ways since the mid-60's when this was written, but the best part of this book is the underlying science. That's fascinating even if the technologies and marketing practices have changed. ( )

John McPhee might be the best writer of non-fiction ever. He makes every subject fascinating. I learned so much I did not know I didn't know about oranges. The chemistry, the botany, the economics and the geography of oranges. Not to mention the history of orangeries in European palaces. The book was published in 1967 and I am sure the Florida orange industry is not the same as it was over fifty years ago. I wonder if many of the orange groves McPhee visited in the Indian River region are still there?
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Short and sweet. Not sure I knew what I was getting when I picked this up - but it was excellent nonfiction on the history of oranges and orange products, especially in the US. Published in 1967, the book is dated by now in terms of technology used to produce and harvest oranges, as well as the all male leadership in the orange industry. My actual book copy was that old, and it was fun to have an anachronism in form and content in my hands. I love a deeper look at average objects and this account fulfilled that in McPhee's capable prose. Oranges have their origin in southeast Asia and spread with the Age of Exploration, coming our to our hemisphere with Columbus and to our country with Ponce DeLeon. They have been symbols of fertility, prosperity and royalty, have forestalled wars and cemented treaties. They have been "mistaken" as apples in various writings, due to the lack of imagination in the Latin language. Those who study them are pomologists and there is much to study from their breeding to the best way to extract their juices and how best to use all the by-products. While now we can get them anywhere, any time, I can remember in childhood the big box of FL oranges that would arrive as a Christmas gift and it was like sunshine arriving on the doorstep. The FL agriculture scene which is mostly oranges and citrus and cattle takes up the vast interior of the state, above the Everglades and away from the coasts. According to this book, it is full of characters and transplants and millions of acres of orange groves which are their own mini-worlds. A great combo of sweeping historical arcs, fun facts, and science, this "tapestry of oranges" was a worthwhile read. ( )

This little book was recommended by a couple of people in my nonfiction reading group. Although it was published in 1967, it only seems dated in a few places.

McPhee originally started his research intending to write a magazine article about oranges and orange juice but he found enough interesting information to make the article a book. I had no idea that a book about oranges could be so interesting. I learned all kinds of interesting things.

McPhee covers the history of oranges and how and when the spread throughout the world. His focus is on the orange industry in Florida. He covers how orange growing got started in the state and how it expanded despite several devastating freezes over the years.

At the time McPhee wrote this the era of frozen orange concentrate was beginning to boom and he laments the preference for that over fresh juice. I grew up drinking orange juice from frozen concentrate but the juice I buy now specifically says 'not from concentrate' on the label.

I loved McPhee's writing style. I learned a lot about oranges. I will seek out more of his work. ( )

The subject is oranges, “once the fruit of the gods,” before they finally became “a fruit of the community.” Originally published in 1967, Oranges was a New Yorker article extended into this elegant, entertaining history. The passages about the now diminished Florida orange industry (“nearly fifty million orange trees”) are historical in nature. The state’s yield is a fraction of what it was at the time due to freezes, overdevelopment and disease.

John McPhee, always a compelling writer, traces the history of oranges in culture and art throughout the world. The fruit holds a special significance in Florida, where many of us remember when oranges, and citrus in general, were responsible for a large part of the state’s charm. ( )