Salt: a world history 986 Reviewshttp://books.google.com/books/about/Salt.html?id=kK7ec92n5x8C Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2002 - Nature - 484 pages Homer called salt a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. Today we take salt for granted, a common, inexpensive substance that seasons food or clears ice from roads, a word used casually in expressions ("salt of the earth," take it with a grain of salt") without appreciating their deeper meaning. However, as Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates in his world- encompassing new book, saltthe only rock we eathas shaped civilization from the very beginning. Its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind. Until about 100 years ago, when modern chemistry and geology revealed how prevalent it is, salt was one of the most sought-after commodities, and no wonder, for without it humans and animals could not live. Salt has often been considered so valuable that it served as currency, and it is still exchanged as such in places today. Demand for salt established the earliest trade routes, across unknown oceans and the remotest of deserts: the city of Jericho was founded almost 10,000 years ago as a salt trading center. Because of its worth, salt has provoked and financed some wars, and been a strategic element in others, such as the American Revolution and the Civil War. Salt taxes secured empires across Europe and Asia and have also inspired revolution (Gandhi's salt march in 1930 began the overthrow of British rule in India); indeed, salt has been central to the age-old debate about the rights of government to tax and control economies. The story of salt encompasses fields as disparate as engineering, religion, and food, all of which Kurlansky richly explores. Few endeavors have inspired more ingenuity than salt making, from the natural gas furnaces of ancient China to the drilling techniques that led to the age of petroleum, and salt revenues have funded some of the greatest public works in history, including the Erie Canal, and even cities (Syracuse, New York). Salt's ability to preserve and to sustain life has made it a metaphorical symbol in all religions. Just as significantly, salt has shaped the history of foods like cheese, sauerkraut, olives, and more, and Kurlansky, an award-winning food writer, conveys how they have in turn molded civilization and eating habits the world over. Saltis veined with colorful characters, from Li Bing, the Chinese bureaucrat who built the world's first dam in 250 BC, to Pattillo Higgins and Anthony Lucas who, ignoring the advice of geologists, drilled an east Texas salt dome in 1901 and discovered an oil reserve so large it gave birth to the age of petroleum. From the sinking salt towns of Cheshire in England to the celebrated salt mine on Avery Island in Louisiana; from the remotest islands in the Caribbean where roads are made of salt to rural Sichaun province, where the last home-made soya sauce is made, Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of history, a multi-layered masterpiece that blends economic, scientific, political, religious, and culinary records into a rich and memorable tale. |
User ratings5 stars | | 4 stars | | 3 stars | | 2 stars | | 1 star | |
Fantastic Great writing style. - Goodreads Review: Salt: A World History Sabio - 15 juillet 2007 - Goodreads ... Fantastic Great writing style. Using one substance to review history was a great exercise. ... Read full review One wonders if his gimmick isn't getting a bit old. - Goodreads Review: Salt: A World History Amos - 5 mars 2007 - Goodreads ... and write another about how salt changed the world? One wonders if his gimmick isn't getting a bit old. And in any case, can't you name pretty much anything ... Read full review A well researched book. - Goodreads Review: Salt: A World History Hayward - 6 mars 2010 - Goodreads ... A well researched book. The book develops it's main theme of salts importance of salt to hans and the development of societies around the world. The main ... Read full review Interesting bunch of history and some unique recipes. - Goodreads Review: Salt: A World History Finbar - 4 février 2010 - Goodreads ... Interesting bunch of history and some unique recipes. The writing got a bit dry for stretches, but overall a worthwhile read. I'm more of a 3.5 stars on this ... Read full review Not exactly a page turner, but still interesting. - Goodreads Review: Salt: A World History Dawn - 9 avril 2007 - Goodreads ... Not exactly a page turner, but still interesting. It presented a lot of history that I was familiar with from a completely different angle - very cool. ... Read full review If nothing else, it's an interesting reference. - Goodreads Review: Salt: A World History Zach - 10 mai 2011 - Goodreads ... appears to be a series of quasi-related facts, but I was interested in learning salt's surprising significance. If nothing else, it's an interesting reference. ... Read full review Review: Salt: A World HistoryUser Review - Carly Fisher - GoodreadsWhen I bought this book, I was between a rock and a hard place at the airport having to decide between this and a David Sedaris book. I went with this and now live without regret. As the title aptly ... Read full review Review: Salt: A World HistoryUser Review - Bryce - GoodreadsNot as good as Kurlansky's Cod, but still a great read. It ended up feeling like a marathon, trying to finish it but I believe that is because the history of salt is quite substantial. Both of his books have made me considerably more interested in food history. Read full review Editorial Review - Cahners Business Information (c) 2001Only 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. (Jan.) All 986 reviews »ContentsINTRODUCTION The Rock | 1 | | | PART | 15 | | | CHAPTER TWO Fish Fowl and Pharoahs | 36 | | | CHAPTER THREE Saltmen Hard as Codfish | 52 | | | CHAPTER FIVE Salting It Away in the Adriatic | 80 | | | PART | 107 | | | The Hapsburg Pickle | 162 | | | Sodiums Perfect Marriage | 289 | | |
NINETEEN The Mythology of Geology | 303 | | | TWENTY The Soil Never Sets On | 318 | | | TWENTYONE | 333 | | | TWENTYTHREE The Last Salt Days of Zigong | 369 | | | TWENTYFIVE | 399 | | | | 467 | | | | | | |
About the author (2002)Mark Kurlansky is well-known to readers through his popular books Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, and, more recently, The Basque History of the World (both published by Walker & Company.). Salt is an appropriate bookend to these books: the story of a humble but ubiquitous substance inextricably interwoven with the history of mankind.
Bibliographic information |