Salt : A World History Paperback – January 1, 2003

A wide-ranging mental feast, full of "who knew?" moments in the history of salt production and uses. A very enjoyable read.

I had no idea salt was so important back before refrigeration. The book is packed with interesting details about early economic importance of salt. The author often gets sidetracked when discussing the topic, but an interesting read nonetheless.

That rare history book that takes on the world as it links the United States, Europe, Russia, China, the Middle East, Africa, South America, South Asia, East Asia through the astonishing history of salt. We should not be surprised--as we soon learn, certain salts are essential for human survival and therefore have affected all communities no longer wholly carniverous (the salt from beef, game, pork and poultry provides adequate amounts on its own).I don't know how Kurlansky accomplished all this research--and managed to make it fascinating, magnetic, and provide endless "aha!" moments in every chapter. You never know where the tale will take you next, yet once you arrive it seems so clear and obvious and yet so surprising and revealing.A book for everyone--those who love great stories, great writing, history, literature, cultural studies, science journalism, ecology, geography, political science...the list goes on.One warning--reading this book will make you an annoyance at dinners and cocktail parties because you won't be able to stop talking about this book! Better to make sure your friends and family all secure copies so they don't have suffer under lectures on How The World Really Works.Reading this review over, I realize it sounds as if it was written by a pal, the publisher or the author. Sorry--I just really loved this book and needed to enthuse. Download a free sample to see what I mean.

Salt is one of those things that turned up all over the place in my high school studies. It turned up in chemisty (sodium chloride), in biology (the amount of salt in our bodies and what we do with it), in history and English (check out the root of the word: "salary"). So sure, salt's important. But does it merit its own entire book about its history? Turns out the answer is both yes and no...I like these small, focused histories (as you've probably guessed if you've read any of the other reviews I've written). I've read many of them, including another one by Mark Kurlansky, Cod (which I rather enjoyed). So when I ran across Salt, I was certain I wanted to read it. I liked Kurlansky's style, and I already knew that the subject matter would be interesting.And it was. In Salt, Kurlansky walks through both the history of salt and the influence of salt on history, presenting a wide and varied picture of one of the [now] most common elements in our modern world. And he does this in the same engaging fashion that he used in Cod; although, with fewer recipes. So why not give it five stars? Well, it has a couple of noticable flaws that tended to detract a bit from the overall presentation.The first flaw was in the sheer number of historical snippets that were included. While I'm certain that salt has been important in the broad span of human history, there are a number of these historical anecdotes where he was clearly reaching to demonstrate the influence of salt. Salt may have been involved in these incidents, but it was peripheral at best, and the overall tone sounds too much like cheerleading. Cutting a few of these out would have shortened the book without detracting from the presentation at all.The second flaw was the meandering path that he takes through the history of salt. He generally starts early in history, and his discussion moves along roughly as history does as well; however, he has a tendency to wander a bit both forward and backward without effectively tying all of this together. I'd have preferred to either walk straight through history while skipping around the world (effectively comparing the use and influence of salt around the world) or to have taken more time to discuss why we were rewinding (effectively following one thread to its conclusion and then picking up another parallel one). To me it made the presentation a little too choppy.There have been other criticisms as well; for example, the chemistry is incorrect in a number of places, but if you're using this as a chemical reference, then you've got serious issues with your ability to library research. Of course, that begs the question of what errors are in there that we didn't catch. And it does tend to be a bit repetitive in parts; although, this could have been used to good effect if historical threads had been followed a bit more completely.While I had a few dings on the book, overall I liked it. The fact that I read it end-to-end and enjoyed the last chapter as much as the first is a testament to my general enjoyment of it. It wasn't the best book I read last year, but I'll certainly keep it on my bookshelf. So, back to my original question: does salt merit its own book? Yes, it does, but perhaps in a somewhat shorter form.

There’s so much I never knew about salt! What a wonderfully informative book. As a Cheesemaker and educator salt is vital to my work but I had kind of overlooked this humble ingredient.Such a good read! Recommend.Tracey at cheeseneeds

I have a great kindness for this book. I read it in 2016. It was my first reading in English, and I learned a lot. This book contributed so much for my English skills and understanding. I learned many things about salt and its importance to both ancient and modern world. I recommend this reading for all the readers that have interest for entertaining and well writing books. The translation from Spanish to English is excellent.

Salt! There is a history of salt. I mean why wouldn’t there be, right? What a great read, with style, compassion, and a contagious interest and passion for the subject, if not those along the way. 100% recommend.

I borrowed the audio cd’s from the library back in 2008 and listened on a long drive I had to make. The book contained so many interesting facts about salt that I hadn’t realised its importance throughout history. I bought the audiobook last year and became curious about the old recipes for preserving food included that I wanted to write them down. I never got around to them, so I decided to buy the book when I saw a secondhand hardback copy for less than a tenner. I was pleased surprised to see maps, drawings, and photographs of various places and tools used in salt production mentioned in the book. I bought the book to have a written copy of the recipes or cooking methods, but it’s become an interesting conversation piece sitting on my sitting room table.

Spannend von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite!