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.
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. You can read this before Salt: A World History PDF EPUB full Download at the bottom.įrom the Bestselling Author of Cod and The Basque History of the World In his fifth work of nonfiction, Mark Kurlansky turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. Here is a quick description and cover image of book Salt: A World History written by Mark Kurlansky which was published in. 15 recipes, 4o illus., 7 maps.Brief Summary of Book: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky 6) got to the finish line first but doesn't compare to this artful narrative.
Pierre Laszlo's Salt: Grain of Life (Forecasts, Aug. A piquant blend of the historic, political, commercial, scientific and culinary, the book is sure to entertain as well as educate.
Throughout his engaging, well-researched history, Kurlansky sprinkles witty asides and amusing anecdotes. 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. 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. 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. Only 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.
0 kommentar(er)
