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Nov 15, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

Well, I'll be pickled!
We say we'll take something with a grain of salt as if it's nothing, but much of the history of the world is tied up in the quest for salt. It's not nothing. We're fortunate to have it in such abundance that we can take it for granted and worry about getting too much of it in our diets. For most of human existence that was not the case.

The material here is thorough and often fascinating, but you must have a strong interest in history if you hope to get thro More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2009

Chrissie rated it:

I very much enjoyed this book on world history, roled like a ball of yarn around the role salt played in this history. I think that different readers will enjoy different aspects of the book. There is something for everyone. I particularly enjoyed the sections on Chinese ancient history, on French salt production on Noirmoutier and Ile de Ré and also the perspective of how French salt taxes (gabelle) influenced the French revolution. This was interesting becuase other books stress the role of th More...

14 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2007

Tracey rated it:

Checked this out from the library on the recommendation of bwanderson.

The title is pretty self-explanatory: the book discusses how salt was accessed, processed, sold and used from ancient times through today. I was pleased to see non-European cultures were included - especially since China and India have had such a rich history entwined with this essential mineral. However, I would have liked to see more info about North & South America and sub-Saharan Africa, and I don't remember a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2007

Jane rated it:

I was very non-plussed by this book. Kurlansky does not do a very good job of presenting his topic. In my opinion he was just throwing out about any facts he could find about salt. In a way he ties it together. He discusses how ancient Chinese used salt; how northern Europeans used salt; how salt was mined; etc. I got that salt is a major natural resource that is the basis for cuisine and culture throughout the world, but I was still asking myself the question, "And?" Kurlansk More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Apr 23, 2007

Amos rated it:

This was the first so-called "commodity history" that I've read, and I'm sorry to say it might have turned me completely off the damn things. I'm not entirely sure why this book is so popular and so widely read, since it strikes me as simply a series of stories by Mark Kurlansky that quickly settle into the same basic mantra, which is: 1) Here is this culture; 2) Like the twenty other cultures I have just introduced to you, salt was also important to this culture; 3) These are the way More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2011

Benjamin rated it:

If I'd stopped halfway through this book, I probably would have given it two stars. It's a look into world history, seen through the lens of the salt industry over the years. It wasn't especially gripping in the early going, coming across quite a bit like a freshman-level college history text. The lack of footnotes or endnotes annoyed me as well, as I am one of those weird people who actually uses them, either to confirm accurately portrayed primary source material, or as signposts to further re More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 17, 2008

J rated it:

Mark Kurlansky is a historical writer who does what one reviewer referred to as the “little-big” style of writing, that is to say, he takes something little and often overlooked and from it he spins out larger truths about society and the world. To say that he does this well would be an understatement.

Salt: A World History, his fascinating history of this overlooked cooking seasoning, makes a couple very good points in its introduction. Because of its current cheapness and easy avail More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2009

Olivia marked it as to-read

I have tried to digest this book called Salt, especially as a food reviewer, and a history buff in training, but I think I will throw it over my left shoulder as I can't get past the taste of the endless first chapter on ancient Asian governments.

The book is pretty well written and full of great pictures and interesting salty tid-bits, but maybe its a bit too ambitious to try to tell the history of the world through a pure salt perspective?!

The value of the mineral, and t More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2007

Dena rated it:

This book was completely fascinating! Sure, human population didn't really take off until we started staying put in one place and domesticating animals and crops, but what do you think preserved those food staples? Salt! Salt didn't just play a role with how we preserve food, but entire wars and civilizations rose and fell due (in part) to their hold on salt. Seriously! Venice became a huge European powerhouse in the middle ages because of their saltworks, and I learned that salt even played a p More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 17, 2011

Teresa rated it:

This book is about so much more than salt. A friend asked me what I was listening oo while listening to this one and they thought it sounded like an absurd thing to read about. I'm inclined to believe that many people might turn away from this book based on that fact, but I found it to be chalked full of so many interesting facts from some of the earliest history.

I found all the information presented in the book a little overwhelming at times and I do believe I would have given it More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2008

Cy rated it:

An interesting survey of the geography and politics of salt. A hodgepodge of random information about how a small but essential substance has indelibly impacted from Israeli tourist development on the Dead Sea to elite fascination with touring underground salt mines to variations in Chinese cuisine and health contingent upon salt availability. Salt: A World History is an example of the kind of historiography I truly enjoy. Rather than trying to discuss an entire country, continent or civiliza More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 23, 2008

Benjamin rated it:

450 pages is a lot of salt. Though interesting by the end I was very ready to be done with it.

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2007

Susan rated it:

A thorough journey into salt, this book was highly informative and entertaining. I was initially drawn to this book for I am a self-proclaimed foodie and salt lover, so to explore the journeys of salt was quite exciting.

A book filled with history and interesting tidbits (i.e. the term salary comes from sal, the Latin word for salt) this book was definitely fun and interesting. I would recommend this book to any who are interested in food and history. A great combination and a fun rea More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Ryan rated it:

This is one of my favorite books of all time. It spurred me to embrace what has become one favorite subjects: food history. Mark Kurlansky brilliantly navigates most of known history describing how salt was almost always a major influence. You're left feeling like salt is the Forrest Gump of food, having played a little respected but, nevertheless, major role in the development of civilization as we know it. Kurlansky's following book, Cod, has major intersections with Salt but is also very good More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 18, 2007

Kian rated it:

The history of salt is super interesting, and I learned a lot of amazing facts about human history from reading this book, BUT... the editing was pretty bad. I mean, it has to be pretty bad for you to actually notice that a book is really poorly written. Chapters would end out of nowhere, there were tons of non-sequiturs, etc. It got progressively worse as I got through the book- and then towards the end it became an advertisement for Mortons Salt. I'd recommend this book from a library, but not More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

Isabel rated it:

This was one of books chosen for the Motley Fool book club and I borrowed it from the library, The introduction started with the author's description of a piece of rock salt that he bought in Spain:[return][return]I took it home and kept it on a windowsill. One day it got rained on, and white salt crystals started appearing on the pink. My rock was starting to look like salt, which would ruin its mystique. So I rinsed off the crystals with water. Then I spent fifteen minutes carefully patting th More...

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Feb 01, 2012

Renee rated it:

This book was very nicely done. I will be completely frank, I hated parts of the first and second sections which were all about fish, but now that I have read the entire piece I understand why fish warranted probably close to ¾ of the entire book.

The book is broken down into three sections, the first on salt in general, the second on fish and some meats in Europe and North America, and the second breaking down salt, talking about Asia and the Caribbean and their relationship to salt, More...

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Jan 12, 2012

Mark rated it:

'Worth your weight in salt'. This book was a delightful read. I originally bought it for my son for Christmas and picked it up. On page 4 of the introduction, there is an engraving dating from 1157 of a bunch of women holding down a partially disrobed man titled "Women Salting Their Husbands". "With this salting, front and back, At last strong natures they will not lack." OK, I was hooked. (Thankfully, I've been able to avoid being salted myself so far.)

You More...

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Nov 06, 2011

Mary added it

"In 1744, Guillaume Francois Rouelle, a member of the French Royal Academy of Sciences, wrote a definition of a salt that has endured. He said that a salt was any substance caused by the reaction of an acid and a base. For a long time, the existence of acids and bases had been known but little understood. Acids were sour tasting and had the ability to dissolve metal. Bases felt soapy. But Rouelle understood that an acid and a base have a natural affinity for each other because nature seeks More...

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Oct 16, 2011

Catherine rated it:

Disclaimer - I had a fever for four of the days that I read this book. Having said that, I found it so completely gripping that I couldn't put it down - who knew that a history of salt could be so utterly fascinating? I was given this book by a work colleague and launched into it without reading the cover, with little idea of what to expect. The first chapter sets the scene:

"Salt is so common, so easy to obtain, and so inexpensive that we have forgotten that from the beginning of civi

More...

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Aug 30, 2011

Martin rated it:

This book started out exciting and became tedious. I loved the early chapters which traced the progress of civilization and how it was tied in with salt production. The Chinese discovered natural gas while salt mining. The Egyptians began preserving food and bodies thanks to salt. The book follows salt production and trade through ascending peoples such as the Celts, Romans, Venetians, the Basques, the Norse, the English. I got a little bored with the chapter on herring, but found the subse More...

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Apr 26, 2011

Ryan rated it:

The history of Sodium, focused primarily on Sodium Chloride (table salt).

How interesting can a book about a mineral be? Well, there was a pretty good book about "Gold" - but "Salt" seems like a distant 2nd place in terms of the drama available for the author to work with.

That said, I did learn a few interesting things. Since the beginning of written history until the 1800's, Salt was the primary means of food storage.

Canning eventually took More...

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Mar 02, 2011

Jan rated it:

For years, I kept hearing about how awesome this book was. Everyone has praised it up and down. So when I finally got around to picking up a copy of it, I was feeling pretty excited. And of course, it turns out to be one of those books that everyone else in the world seems to like but me.

I will admit that there were a lot of chapters of this book that I did enjoy. And I learned many fun facts that I had not previously known: i.e. where the term "red herring" comes from, how More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 08, 2010

Michael rated it:

Kurlansky guides the reader through the whole known history of Salt: its production, permutations, uses, and effects as an important commodity. One might question my statement “the whole known history” but I assure you I can’t think of anything he might have left out. And when I say, “he guides [one:] through” I mean that, after finally finishing this book, I feel like I literally walked through 6000 or whatever years of this in uncomfortable sandals.

Obviously I expected some compre More...

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Oct 17, 2009

Elana rated it:

AIYIYI... I just couldn't take this book. I was determined to read it after I chose it for a challenge I had entered but my goodness was it a struggle. I don't know if it was because I had just finished a textbook size of a book that was purely about science (A Short History of Nearly Everything) and was in major fiction withdrawal, or the fact that this book was breathtakingly boring, but I could literally not read more than 15 pages before I actually started to drift off into a deep s More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2009

Cade rated it:

I liked this book. Salt has been at the heart of a whole lot of our history. In today's world it is easy to see salt as simply a condiment on the table. There is enough, and generally way more than enough salt in the diets of all developed countries, that the need to search for salt is no longer a daily concern and we don't even think about it anymore.

Salt is an essential mineral to our diets and it can not be gotten from just eating meat or vegetables. To survive, we must seek o More...

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Sep 24, 2007

Laura rated it:

This book changed my life. I picked it up because fiction novels were all looking the same to me, and because it was thick enough to last the long train ride from Dusseldorf to Maastricht. School textbooks were the only non-fiction I'd ever read, and they had not prepared me for the vibrant and engaging writing found in Salt. Since reading this book I have become a devoted fan of non-fiction writing, which has exposed me to a whole new world of literature.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Maribeth rated it:

I picked up this book because the idea of someone writing an entire book on salt was...alarming. I wanted to see if the author could pull it off. Surprisingly enough, he did. I felt kind of like I was watching that show Connections with how he tied everything together. It was a little dry in some spots, yes, but for the most part I found it to be really interesting. And the looks I got when I said, "I'm reading a book on the history of salt." were pretty much priceless.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

Joyce rated it:

Salt: A World History was presented to me at our book club (by Sylvia Leary). My eyes were like saucers, but after I started turning pages, over 400 of them, I really became interested in this history lesson. A good part of the book deals with salt in China and Rome. Salt for human consumption is produced in different forms: refined salt (table salt), and iodized salt, unrefined (sea salt). Salt is involved in regulating the fluids in our bodies. Of course, everyone knows too much salt intake More...

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Jan 08, 2012

Elgin rated it:

Salt is something we (or at least I) take pretty much for granted, but it turns out it has a long history of political and economic importance in the developments of civilizations. The book had a good deal of information about the history of salt production, including the mining of rock salt and the isolation of salt by evaporation from underground brine or sea water. The political and economic histories were very interesting, especially the discussions of salt taxes and their affects. I also More...

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