Mark Kurlansky's "Salt: A Global History"

James Elfers: This is a good book but not quite what I expected. Don’t get me wrong, this is a well-written and entertaining book but I wanted a more linear history of salt. This is more of a social history crammed with often useless recipes. I wanted to read more about salt’s impact on history we get that but not to the degree I would have liked. This book talks more about caviar than the impact of salt on the Roman Empire! I mean really the author went there? I’m glad I read it but there were so many places I wanted the author to go that he refused. More about how the average Roman got their salt would have been nice. He talks about how many African societies today still take salt in ancient shapes like cylinders and cones, but we don’t see how they use that salt. Instead we hear repeatedly and annoyingly about how the folks on the North Sea and Scandinavia salt their fish! Fortunately, it has a robust bibliography so that frustrated readers like me can fill in the gaps.

United States on Jan 07, 2024

Miriam Woodruff: Nicely researched and presented. This made a great gift.

United States on Dec 30, 2023

Tracey Johnson: 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

Canada on Nov 23, 2023

Tim Thomas: I found this book to be an excellent source of history. I never imagined a subject like salt could have affected and had such an effect on societies. It added a new vision to my understanding of history, including why wars were fought. Whether salt is good or bad, only a pinch will do, and the flavor of my food is so good.

United States on Jun 21, 2023

April McLoughlinApril McLoughlin: 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.

United Kingdom on Apr 24, 2023

Canady : Spannend von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite!

Germany on Apr 22, 2023

Dorval Fagundes: 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.

Brazil on Aug 01, 2022

Scott A. Clark: 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.

Mexico on Jul 22, 2022

Amazon Customer: I am a qualified Nutritionist and Naturopath and I appreciate reading books that are rich in meaningful information. I bought this book because I had increasingly noted that the concerns we have about table salt are unfounded. So I decided to do some research. To get a good handle on salt, I needed to go back in time (hence this book) to understand the use of salt throughout history, and then relate that to more recent studies that were conducted.

There were as many studies claiming salts benefits and there are many claiming salt is bad. So that did not give me any confidence that everyone was singing from the same hymn sheet. Whenever I see conflicting study outcomes, I immediately look to see whether we are comparing apples with apples, and we were not. You see, there are actually 3 types of salt and one is very good and two are not so good. Most studies did not even point this out, or realised that we humans eat three very different types of salt. So let me try to make sense of this:

I have certainly come to the conclusion that many others have already come to, that the benefits of eating generous amounts of the right salt to suit one’s...

United States on May 19, 2013

Sin-Yaw Wang: Unlike oil, salt and water are reusable and also among the most abundant elements on earth. There is no shortage of either one to last humanity through eternity. Except without energy, we just can't make good use of them. This has been the struggle throughout human history until about 100 years ago.

Mark Kurlansky's book, Salt: a World History, tells the world's history from the angle of salt and I will never view this commodity substance the same.

Earth has a huge amount of salt. Coastal places clearly have sea water. Inland areas usually have salt mines, sometime as big as a mountain, or salt lakes. Then there are brine springs all around the world. To extract salt from them, we need energy: to dig, to evaporate, to distribute. Historical major saltworks were usually at the location where all three were together: free flowing brine spring, big mountain of rock salt, or long coast lines; forest, coal mine, natural gas, or good weather for solar energy; and river, canal, or sea ports. All those places became major cities which, in turn, shaped most of our history.

Until canning and refrigeration, salting was the only way to preserve food:...

United States on Mar 12, 2012