Salt: A World History
by Mark Kurlansky
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Read in April, 2007
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 w...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
history, engineering, and an ancient cookbook rolled into one
It's true: nearly five hundred pages can be devoted entirely to the historical importance of salt. I won't take my little blue Morton's canister for granted again.
Expansive in its historical scope, this book covers the economic and cultural importance of salt throughout recorded history -- and back even further by extrapolating from archaeological finds on various continents. But for all the sprawling history, the book's focus is more narrow than I expected: it's primarily concerned with the...more
Expansive in its historical scope, this book covers the economic and cultural importance of salt throughout recorded history -- and back even further by extrapolating from archaeological finds on various continents. But for all the sprawling history, the book's focus is more narrow than I expected: it's primarily concerned with the...more
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Read in September, 2003
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 anyth...more
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 anyth...more
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Read in February, 2008
This is based upon the audio download from www.Audible.com
Narrated by: Scott Brick
The legendary pipes of Scott Brick did little to enhance this biography of the ubiquity of salt. The book is a curate’s egg—there are dull parts but there are also some very interesting parts. I didn't think it possible to have someone talk about salt for 13 hours and 43 minutes but it was.
The book begins with facts about salt and the sharing o...more
Narrated by: Scott Brick
The legendary pipes of Scott Brick did little to enhance this biography of the ubiquity of salt. The book is a curate’s egg—there are dull parts but there are also some very interesting parts. I didn't think it possible to have someone talk about salt for 13 hours and 43 minutes but it was.
The book begins with facts about salt and the sharing o...more
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Read in March, 2008
I really enjoyed the previous book I read by Kurlansky - Cod: A Biography. This wasn't quite as good, probably because one of the things I liked most about Cod was that it dealt with a product that I knew little about that really helped shape the world. Salt is obviously a bit more well known.
Additionally, I fel...more
Additionally, I fel...more
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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
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Read in January, 2003
"Salt," by Mark Kurlansky, is all you could possibly hope to know about "the only rock human's eat." Though well written, interesting, filled with lore, and entertaining, it's really more than I ever wanted to know. Maybe the secret of "Salt," like salt, is small doses. That's not the route I took, though. I figured I'd devour the text like any other book and finish it off in about a week. I almost did, and then something else beckoned (actually, anything could have...more
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Read in December, 2007
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 pla...more
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For Kurlansky the history of the world is the history of salt (before that it was salted cod, and before that it was the salted cod fishermen, the Basque).
I've got a soft spot for popularized history that take in the whole sweeping scope of human history (see Jared Diamond), the subject matter and trivia is intriguing (oil mining rigs were invented for mining salt; Imperial England's "War on Drugs" was a war on salt, and Gandhi's great march to the sea was to collect salt in the t...more
I've got a soft spot for popularized history that take in the whole sweeping scope of human history (see Jared Diamond), the subject matter and trivia is intriguing (oil mining rigs were invented for mining salt; Imperial England's "War on Drugs" was a war on salt, and Gandhi's great march to the sea was to collect salt in the t...more
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Read in May, 2008
So i FINALLY finished this one. It took a good hundred pages to get into in, going through China, Rome, Italy, Vikings, et blah blah, kind of boring. Then you get to the British, French, and really interesting parts of history, Cape Cod, New Orleans, the Caribbean (Turks and Caicos) etc. It took off from pgs. 200-458 (la fin).
Lots of quotes and crazy old school recipes that required weird stuff like fried frog stomachs, MSG, or a little boy to jump on a barrel for hours/ days...? ahh what?...more
Lots of quotes and crazy old school recipes that required weird stuff like fried frog stomachs, MSG, or a little boy to jump on a barrel for hours/ days...? ahh what?...more
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Read in January, 2003
Officially two stars is supposed to mean "it was okay" and one star is supposed to signify "I didn't like it," but there are many degrees of books I dislike and this one was moderately better than it could have been. The writing is OK, Kurlanky has energy, but he attacked this work of non-fiction with no clear agenda.
If there's a thesis beyond "salt is important," Kurlansky fails to articulate it. If there's a logic to how this book is organized, that's not cle...more
If there's a thesis beyond "salt is important," Kurlansky fails to articulate it. If there's a logic to how this book is organized, that's not cle...more
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Read in February, 2008
This book is a tour de force. It just happened to bludgeon me with all that force.
Salt is what makes the world work. This book sets out to make that point, and make it it does. Over. And over. A litany of places, names, times, people, and all of them had the same story - find salt, sell salt, use salt.
Yes, it's amazing the role salt has played in our world. I got that in the first 20 pages. The rest just kept making the same point. I was hoping for some progression, some point,...more
Salt is what makes the world work. This book sets out to make that point, and make it it does. Over. And over. A litany of places, names, times, people, and all of them had the same story - find salt, sell salt, use salt.
Yes, it's amazing the role salt has played in our world. I got that in the first 20 pages. The rest just kept making the same point. I was hoping for some progression, some point,...more
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Read in May, 2008
Salt: A World History is heavy in hyperbole, but chock full of good facts and talking points for your next dinner party. Kurlansky attributes many of the world's historic moments and eras to the control and distribution of salt. While it no doubt played a key role as a resource that was sought by nations either for internal consumption or as a commodity of colonialism and conquest, it wasn't the only resource countries and their rulers were exploiting.
Salt is an interesting book that sheds ...more
Salt is an interesting book that sheds ...more
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Read in April, 2008
I now have a new respect for salt and its social and cultural significance. I really do marvel at how salt preserves meat and fish (really? I almost still don't believe it!), and I don't think I will ever casually salt something again without appreciating the coolness of salt. That said, I was pretty disappointed with the first half. I thought I'd be getting "A History of Salt," when really the book is very much in line with its actual title: "Salt: A World History." The fir...more
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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
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There are surely countless factors, commodities, decisions, acts of nature etc. that have shaped our world history just as much as salt has over the years - however, for the most part, no one has bothered to write an engaging book about most of them.
We seem to all hail from a society that increasing fails to question where we have come from. Too much of our world history is written in a manner and rhetoric that can only appeal to historians; I find it refreshing whenever I find a window i...more
We seem to all hail from a society that increasing fails to question where we have come from. Too much of our world history is written in a manner and rhetoric that can only appeal to historians; I find it refreshing whenever I find a window i...more
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Read in March, 2004
For a while there I was showing up to work every day with a new awesome fact about salt throughout history and just history in general. Like, did you know Roman soldiers were paid in bags of salt? It's the root of the word salutation. There is a grandiose underground castle in Poland built in a salt mine where they started a mine band on account of the great acoustics in there . And oh boy, all the information about soy sauce. And an interesting story about Edmund McIlhenny and how he got rich i...more
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Read in February, 2004
recommends it for:
a person who likes history of the mundane
... this book totally blew my mind. people have no idea how integral salt was to the development of and perpetuation of ancient civilizations. Or maybe you do and I'd like to be your friend cause knowing little tidbits about how the salt trade affected the geopolitical situations of the ancient world totally makes you think about what the metaphors from our era re: oil or fossil fuels will be?!?! This book is totally for the geeky, nerdy person who likes throwing out tidbits of ancient histor...more
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Read in November, 2007
I did not like this book one little bit. I am a big fan of useless trivia about things we take for granted, and I like that were a few bits thrown in here about everyones favorite condiment, but overall this book had no direction. It meandered aimlessly from country to country and period of time to period of time. I found no common theme (other than everybody uses salt) with which to tie everything together and have it make sense. I was so bored it was like trying to absorb a High School His...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Cat by:
Gershon!
I really enjoyed this book : Kurlansky's tongue-in-cheek humor was very welcome in a work that could have been ridiculously dry. If it's done well, as this one is, reading about history from the perspective of a single item can be fascinating. Probably it's more accurate to consider this book as tracking salt's progress and connotations through changing historical contexts.
It also happens to be a good commute-type read, if you're into that kind of thing - good for picking up & reading ...more
It also happens to be a good commute-type read, if you're into that kind of thing - good for picking up & reading ...more
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