| Salt: A World History | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Kurlansky
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $5.68
You Save: $10.32 (65%)
Buy New/Used from $3.26
Avg. Customer Rating:   (108 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1685
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 498
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0142001619
Dewey Decimal Number: 553.63209
EAN: 9780142001615
ASIN: 0142001619
Publication Date: January 28, 2003
Release Date: January 28, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Mark Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the World, here turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions. Populated by colorful characters and filled with an unending series of fascinating details, Kurlansky's kaleidoscopic history is a supremely entertaining, multi-layered masterpiece.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 103 more reviews...
 Good Read December 2, 2008
A fascinating book that's a quick read. Some of the historical assertions seem a bit of a stretch to me,(the American and French Revolutions fought over salt?)but I'm not an historian, and the book makes good arguments for its case. I have totally enjoyed it and have bought 2 more copies for gifts to foodie friends.
Pleasurable read about historys most important mineral December 1, 2008
I am a geologist and this book was a great pleasure to read. Salt aka Halite is a important mineral to a geologist. This was a fun book to see how important is is to history.
 Ok...It was just Ok October 13, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I purchsed this book used, and that's just what I got: a used book. Some of the pages were bent and the cover a little worn, but other than that it was ok. It looked as if it had been read more than once. But that's what I ordered...so it was ok.
 flawed but fascinating September 22, 2008
"Salt: A World History" is exactly what the title advertises: stories about the production, trade, and use of salt from our earliest archaeological and written records through to modern times.
Kurlansky's writing is serviceable at best and more often rather clunky,repetitious, and tin-eared -- no one will ever accuse him of being a great prose stylist or a master storyteller. He doesn't have the most developed historical sense, which means that bits of information float in discreet units, bereft of context or full interpretation. And he has a *thing* about the Basques, which I have noticed turning up in his other work as well -- I think he tends to insert information he knows well (such as Basque history) into historical moments he's less sure of, so as to sound more knowledgeable than he perhaps truly is.
Nevertheless, the stories Kurlansky has to tell are fascinating enough to mostly overcome those difficulties. As a bonus, each chapter can more or less stand on its own, so you can space your reading in bite-sized chunks, as it were -- "Salt" is a great book to bring to a waiting room or on a bus ride.
In summary, "Salt" is an interesting book, but with too many flaws for me to recommend buying it. Borrow a copy from the library instead.
A great read September 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book took an item we take for granted today, salt, and discussed its history. Some have criticized the author for including so many recipes. I disagree. Salt is used in cooking after all, and to put salt into a proper context we need to witness how it was used.
I enjoyed how the author wove the various aspects of the salt trade into a coherent history. For instance, that salt was so important in wartime never struck me before, though it seems obvious now.
A good, hard to put down read, Salt: A World History is a good book for people who like history, economics or the culinary arts.
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