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Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky
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Homer called it a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. As Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates here, salt has shaped civilisation from the beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind. Wars have been fought over salt and, while salt taxes secured empires across Europe and Asia, they have also inspired revolution - Gandhi's salt march in 1930 began the overthrow of British rule in India. From the rural Sichuan province where the last home-made soya sauce is produced to the Cheshire brine springs that supplied salt around the globe, Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of world history, a multi-layered masterpiece that blends political, commercial, scientific, religious and culinary records into a rich and memorable tale.
- Sales Rank: #3795949 in Books
- Published on: 2010-02-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.80" h x 1.22" w x 5.08" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 496 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Only Kurlansky, winner of the James Beard Award for Excellence in Food Writing for Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, could woo readers toward such an off-beat topic. Yet salt, Kurlansky asserts, has "shaped civilization." Although now taken for granted, these square crystals are not only of practical use, but over the ages have symbolized fertility (it is, after all, the root of the word "salacious") and lasting covenants, and have been used in magical charms. Called a "divine substance" by Homer, salt is an essential part of the human body, was one of the first international commodities and was often used as currency throughout the developing world. Kurlansky traces the history of salt's influences from prehistoric China and ancient Africa (in Egypt they made mummies using salt) to Europe (in 12th-century Provence, France, salt merchants built "a system of solar evaporation ponds") and the Americas, through chapters with intriguing titles like "A Discourse on Salt, Cadavers and Pungent Sauces." The book is populated with characters as diverse as frozen-food giant Clarence Birdseye; Gandhi, who broke the British salt law that forbade salt production in India because it outdid the British salt trade; and New York City's sturgeon king, Barney Greengrass. Throughout his engaging, well-researched history, Kurlansky sprinkles witty asides and amusing anecdotes. A piquant blend of the historic, political, commercial, scientific and culinary, the book is sure to entertain as well as educate. Pierre Laszlo's Salt: Grain of Life (Forecasts, Aug. 6) got to the finish line first but doesn't compare to this artful narrative. 15 recipes, 4o illus., 7 maps.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In his latest work, Kurlansky (Cod, The Basque History of the World) is in command of every facet of his topic, and he conveys his knowledge in a readable, easy style. Deftly leading readers around the world and across cultures and centuries, he takes an inexpensive, mundane item and shows how it has influenced and affected wars, cultures, governments, religions, societies, economies, cooking (there are a few recipes), and foods. In addition, he provides information on the chemistry, geology, mining, refining, and production of salt, again across cultures, continents, and time periods. The 26 chapters flow in chronological order, and the cast of characters includes fishermen, kings, Native Americans, and even Gandhi. An entertaining, informative read, this is highly recommended for all collections. [For another book on the topic, see Pierre Laszlo's more esoteric Salt: Grain of Life, LJ 7/01; other recent micro-histories include Joseph Amato's Dust, Mort Rosenblum's Olive, and Tom Vanderbilt's The Sneaker Book. Ed.] Michael D. Cramer, Raleigh, N.
- Michael D. Cramer, Raleigh, NC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Kurlansky thinks big. First, there was Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (1997), then The Basque History of the World (1999), and now, the world history of a subject bigger than one of the most important food commodities in the West, bigger than the oldest extant European culture--that culinary sine qua non, salt. Of course, salt is necessary for life itself; living bodies eliminate it, and without replenishment by ingestion, humans and other animals soon die, which is why animal trails lead to salt licks, and the first human paths did, too. Moreover, salt is a dandy preservative of meat, vegetables, and, as the ancient Egyptians knew, corpses. Homo faber figured out how to get salt out of brine, a discovery that increased the number of places people could prosper. Still, though salt is a very common substance, it is not always easily accessible, and weather and climate can make extraction from brine impractical. Hence, salt became the basis of wealth for communities, principalities, and empires, even after the invention of refrigeration and the diagnosis of hypertension. This is the big story Kurlansky unfolds in chapters that proceed from time immemorial to the present and cover such specific topics as "Salt's Salad Days" in ancient Rome; the "Nordic Dream" of enough salt for all Scandinavia's herring, not to mention lakrits (salted licorice); how, just as oil won the Big One, salt largely won the War between the States; and why, when Gandhi really got down to persuading the British out of India, he started with a "salt march." Tasty, very tasty! Ray Olson
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Needed a better editor
By Bradley Nelson
I was a chef for 7 years and now I'm a World History teacher. If ever there was a book written for me...
This, unfortunately, was a disappointment. I tried to read this book a few years ago and couldn't get into. I forced myself this time, hoping to maybe find portions I could have my students read. But this book was a burden to get through.
PRO:
This book examines some really fascinating portions of history and the role salt played. You learn a lot of fascinating anecdotes and even some etymology. It is clearly thoroughly researched and covers every part of the globe, not just Europe/USA.
CON:
Not all chapters are created equal. Some are riveting, others are quite boring. It seems that nothing was left out. Anything remotely related to salt is included. I frequently found myself asking "why is this in the book?" Too often the stories told seem to have little relevance to world history, other than the fact that they happened and salt was involved. This book could have been 20-30% shorter. The writing style was fine, but the content was too often unfocused and unconnected.
Perhaps my biggest disappointment is that the book simply ends. There is no real attempt to examine the overarching role of salt in world history. That is left up to the reader. No forward looks either.
Kurlansky's book Cod was phenomenal and I would recommend it to everyone. This one? Probably not.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Somebody Needs An Editor
By T' Wretched Reviewer With Malice Aforethought
Historical anecdotes that had something to do with salt, some recipes for salted meat, vegetables, and fish, etc. I'm up to chapter ten, and I don't think I can make thru another page. Disjointed stories about salt mines/salt making all over the place, king's and queen's salt containers, building with salt blocks, crossing the desert in salt caravans, it's like some old college professor droning on about whatever comes to mind and putting the lecture hall audience to sleep. You keep hoping there will be something perhaps scientific or maybe even an interesting idea or some enthralling tale of how salt miners saved the world, but you'd be wrong. It's about exciting as the salt shaker in the kitchen. We get it, salt is important and we all need it, it's all over the place (the ocean's loaded with it), and on and on and on and on and on and on. 400 pages of this is too much for one person to bear.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
incredibly slow read
By Wyn
I picked this book up thinking it would be along the lines of The Edible History of Humanity or The History of the World in 6 Glasses, both by Tom Standage. I couldn't have been more wrong. Where those two books had a clear timeline, this book seemed to jump in ways that seem random. The first section examines salt production in the old world of the China, Egypt and Africa and Ancient Rome. It logically pairs the salt production with its use in food preservation. The second section is the new world of Europe, North America (evidently there isn't salt in South America) and Scandinavia. The third section is devoted towards modern production (think Industrial Revolution and forward). In this third section the geography is more varied than before. It also highlights modern production of salt including the addition of Iodine to commercial salt.
In all three sections, there is a tendency to lose momentum repeatedly in the same chapter. The text is punctuated with recipes involving salts. One or two of these interludes per section might have been interesting; one or two per chapter is somewhat annoying. I also felt that the in depth but somewhat (at times) confusing descriptions of salt production methods were more distracting than helpful.
The book does try to encompass major events, such as the French Revolution and British colonialism in India and China, through what I like to call the salt filter. How did taxation or the availability of salt affect events? The book brings a broader perspective on the French revolution even to the politics of the Indian independence movement. I felt that this salt filter was sometimes applied a little too heavily and discounted other driving factors behind unrest, revolution and how a society functioned.
The author tended to get caught in trends of salt use and then expanded upon them ad nauseum. It was interesting to learn about the fishery industry that until recently was heavily interdependent on the salt trade. I sometimes felt I was reading a history of fishing more than salt, especially during the second section.
There was only a cursory mention of the chemical nature of salt. It felt more like the author felt he had to include something and did some quick research without actually understanding the chemistry behind the formation of salt. The author briefly mentions that scientists aren't exactly sure what caused salt formations to appear as they did but never offered any of the current theories. This might be my scientific background speaking, but I really wasn't impressed with how little chemical explanation was found in this book. I also feel that the author could have gone into why salt is an important mineral in the human diet. He often noted this without any explanation.
Despite my very pointed criticisms, I still feel that this was a book that was worth reading. The writing style was mediocre at best, but you felt the author had an unhealthy obsession with salt. I think that this obsession both hurt and aided the finished book. There were details in there that no other human would think to research which resulted in both interesting and terribly boring passages. This is far from light reading even by my twisted standards (I read biographies and science texts for fun.)
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