Salt: A World History
- ISBN-10
- 030736979X
- ISBN-13
- 9780307369796
- Series
- Salt
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 496
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2011-03-18
- Publisher
- Vintage Canada
- Author
- Mark Kurlansky
Description
From the award-winning and bestselling author of Cod comes the dramatic, human story of a simple substance, an element almost as vital as water, that has created fortunes, provoked revolutions, directed economies and enlivened our recipes. Salt is common, easy to obtain and inexpensive. It is the stuff of kitchens and cooking. Yet trade routes were established, alliances built and empires secured – all for something that filled the oceans, bubbled up from springs, formed crusts in lake beds, and thickly veined a large part of the Earth’s rock fairly close to the surface. From pre-history until just a century ago – when the mysteries of salt were revealed by modern chemistry and geology – no one knew that salt was virtually everywhere. Accordingly, it was one of the most sought-after commodities in human history. Even today, salt is a major industry. Canada, Kurlansky tells us, is the world’s sixth largest salt producer, with salt works in Ontario playing a major role in satisfying the Americans’ insatiable demand. As he did in his highly acclaimed Cod, Mark Kurlansky once again illuminates the big picture by focusing on one seemingly modest detail. In the process, the world is revealed as never before.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
By Samin NosratThis book will change the way you think about cooking and eating, and help you find your bearings in any kitchen, with any ingredients, while cooking any meal. --
-
Salt
By Hannah MoskowitzAcclaimed author Hannah Moskowitz has reinvented yet another genre in this ridiculously propulsive epic that is part seafaring epic, part coming-of-age tale, and a totally warm-hearted story of a boy who loves his family and just wants to ...
-
The Story of Salt
By Mark KurlanskyDrawn from the bestseller Salt: A World History, a stunning picture book presents a wealth of information on salt, from the many ways it's gathered from the earth and sea, to its many uses throughout history, from ancient times to Gandhi's ...
-
In the Salt Marsh: Poems
By Nancy WillardIn this strong, appealing collection, Nancy Willard shares her passion for observing the mysteries of the natural world, particularly the flora and fauna of Cape Cod and the Hudson Valley, where many of these poems are set.
-
Breath from Salt: A Deadly Genetic Disease, a New Era in Science, and the Patients and Families Who Changed Medicine...
By Bijal P. TrivediThis is a rewarding and challenging work." —Publishers Weekly Cystic fibrosis was once a mysterious disease that killed infants and children.
-
Salt Block Grilling
By Mark BittermanEveryone who loves the excitement and pleasure of discovering new cooking techniques will enjoy this guide to grilling and entertaining with salt blocks.
-
Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
By Michael MossThis is an eye-opening book that demonstrates how the makers of these foods have chosen, time and again, to double down on their efforts to increase consumption and profits, gambling that consumers and regulators would never figure them out ...
-
The Book of Salt: A Novel
By Monique TruongWinner of the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award A Best Book of the Year: New York Times, Village Voice, Seattle Times, Miami Herald, San Jose Mercury News, and others “An irresistible, scrupulously engineered confection ...
-
Of Women and Salt: A Novel
By Gabriela GarciaA haunting meditation on the choices of mothers, the legacy of the memories they carry, and the tenacity of women who choose to tell their stories despite those who wish to silence them, this is more than a diaspora story; it is a story of ...
-
Salt to the Sea
By Ruta SepetysRacing to freedom with thousands of other refugees as Russian forces close in on their homes in East Prussia, Joana, Emilia, and Florian meet aboard the doomed Wilhelm Gustloff and are forced to trust each other in order to survive.