About this title: Mark Kurlansky, who wrote COD, now turns his attention to salt, looking at its history and the odd associations it has had for people: it has been seen variously as divine, aphrodisiac, good for preserving food, useful for reviving zombies, and of course indispensable in the cuisines of many nations. A New York Times Notable Book for 2002.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: First Paperback Edition
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage, London, United Kingdom
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780099281993ISBN:0099281996
Description: Good- 8vo-over 7 3/4"-9 3/4" Tall 0099281996 Used Creasing and wear to wraps and first few pages, 8vo, 484pp. a good reading copy. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780142001615ISBN:0142001619
Description: Fine. 8vo. {012011} Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. ISBN 0142001619. Published by Penguin Group USA in 2003. TRADE PAPERBACK 8vo History 484pp. {Book Condition} FINE {Book Condition Details} Cover: barely visible edge wear. read more
Description: New. THIS IS A NEW BOOK! Very good condition. very clean and bright pages; Book has almost no shelfwear; tight spine uncreased; Reliable customer service and no-hassle return policy. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Date Published: 2003-01-01
ISBN-13:9780142001615ISBN:0142001619
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780142001615. read more
"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 slumber. I had to think about and plan out times where I would be awake enough to read. I had to get multiple nights of decent amounts of sleep before I could continue on my huge undertaking of reading more than 20 pages.
It was as if Kurlansky was intentionally aiming for the reader to not give a rats a** about salt. For the reader to actually not want to learn anything further about something that kinda seemed interesting at the time. The information Kurlansky gave me was so irrelevant and uninteresting I found myself having to reread lines over and over and still not be able to understand what the significance of it being there was.
I was really excited to read Salt: A World History because I thought it would be an unique experience to read about a topic that most people take for granted. To learn some new and interesting things about a topic that is very rarely a point of conversation. But what I found was what I thought the stereotype of books about random specific topics would be like. Completely and totally uninteresting and boring. Just because a book is non-fiction and about salt doesn't mean the writing as to be blander than an instruction manual on how to put together a flash light."
"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 out salt deposits, harvest the salt, and eat the salt.
We now are able to easily mine salt and it no longer poses a problem and the abundance of low cost salt has now turned the mineral into a simple condiment, but this has not always been so. Many wars have been fought over salt. The Roman legions used to be paid in salt, hence the saying, 'earn your salt'. The discovery of oil and natural gas deposits were brought about through the search for salt. The end of British rule in India and Gandhi's peace movement was aided by a dispute over salt.
The book has several sections that might be a bit dry with recipes for things such as Garum (a fermented fish sauce) if reading the book, but listening to it in audio format was fun."
"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 the price of bread rather than these salt taxes. Other people may be interested in the role salt played in the American Revoltion, Morton Salt Company, German and Austrian salt mines, how a lack of Scandinavian salt influenced the Vikings, hydraulic drilling and gas deposits or the numerous old recipes provided (the original ketchup, tomato ketchup, the difference betwwen the Swedish herring surströmming versus sill). I believe there is something here for everyone. The author makes the information so interesting that it fastens in your head! Well hopefully at least for awhile!"
"I learned so much from this book! If you are a dork like me who loves non fiction, you need to read this. Somehow, "Salt" manages to cover every continent and span the entire history of mankind yet is less than 500 page. Writing with just enough detail to make it a worthwhile read but not so much that the reader is bogged down with dates and names is a fine line that Kurlansky manages to stay on the good side of. I could have used a glossary to supplement the index to quickly remind me of various terminology. Although there is a fair bit of pictures and diagrams throughout, I would have added more maps for a better sense of relative locations in some places. Interesting to me: mentions of Titusville, PA, La Rochelle (the town I lived in France for a summer in high school) and the salty origins of Tabasco sauce."
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