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Salt

A World History

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Salt

Auteur(s): Mark Kurlansky
Narrateur(s): Scott Brick
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The author of Cod and The Basque History of the World takes an extraordinary look at an ordinary substance — salt, the only rock humans eat — and how it has shaped civilization from the very beginning. Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of history, a multi-layered masterpiece that blends economic, scientific, political, religious, and culinary records into a rich and memorable tale.

©2006 Mark Kurlansky (P)2006 Phoenix Books, Inc. Gastronomie Monde Nature et écologie Nourriture et vin Science Sciences de la Terre Afrique Impérialisme Moyen Âge Amérique Latine Histoire ancienne Empire britannique
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A incredible version of history of the world told thru salt. I learned so much and look at that little shaker in my kitchen in a whole new light.

Incredible.

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Nice snapshots of different cultures in different times and how they used salt. Most interesting was the various European skirmishes over salt

pretty good, had fun

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I actually really enjoyed this audible book, It describes how important salt was a contributor for expansion.

Was a great history lesson

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A global history that traces humanity’s use of salt: salt works and salt making, salt mining, salt trading and smuggling, slavery, taxes and revolutions, pirates, wars over fisheries and control of salt as a tool of war…as well as techniques for curing and pickling foods and delicious (and some not so delicious) recipes for traditional dishes from different times and cultures. I gained a new respect for Irish corned beef, for sauerkrauts, and for traditional ketchups - although I may have also lost my taste for Roquefort cheese after learning more about how it is made.

Today, when salt is cheap and widely available, It is difficult to appreciate how important salt has been throughout history, how necessary it is and how valuable it was after the Neolithic Revolution created the human need for salt as a commodity, and how governments used salt as a tool of control from ancient times through to the 20th Century.

There are so many captivating stories and details in this book: Salt’s key role in mummification, and in preserving Chinese thousand year old eggs to make eggs safe for transport. The ancient Egyptians attempted to domesticate hyenas. The Saharan salt trade of camel caravans across the desert to Timbuktu still survives today. Tyrian purple dye, a treasure traded by the Phoenicians, was made by collecting the mucus of tens of thousands of Mediterranean snails. 

Everyone traded salt, the Celts, even the Vikings (although slaves were much more lucrative). Venice began as a humble salt making and salt trading center. Basque whalers and cod fishers, after they learned to salt fish onboard immediately after catching it, may have been (probably were) the first Europeans to land in the New World. Herring shoals create lightning in the sea at night. Control over salt was critical in the American Revolutionary War and the US Civil War especially in the Confederacy which suffered terrible shortages under the Union blockade. Buffalo NY was built on a salt lick. The Erie Canal was dug to transport salt. 

Sturgeon, an endangered living fossil, used to be found almost everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Caviar was given away for free in 19th Century American bars to encourage thirst (like pretzels today), and British soldiers in World War I would trade away their rations of canned caviar (“fish jam”) for almost anything else. French royal salt tax control officers frequently fondled women searching for salt smuggled inside their underwear. The British went to absurd lengths to control salt making in colonial India, which led to Gandhi’s famous salt march to the sea…and the eventual replacement of British control over salt production and distribution by India’s own exploitative salt cartel. 

Scientists understand the relationship between underground salt deposits and petroleum finds, but they don’t know why the sea is salty.

There are times when the exhaustive descriptions of salt works and salt making techniques and fishing and preserving fish with salt (the author has written another similar book on cod fishing throughout history) wore down my interest. But this is overall, a fascinating history. A useful complement to this book is the section on salt in Ed Conway’s Material World, which looks at a much broader story about salts outside of sodium chloride, especially in the modern chemicals industry.

I learned a lot about salt (and about fishing and cooking), and about history in general, from this book.

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You will never look at table salt the same ever again. I read this book years ago and the narrator does it justice. This is a look at humanity's history and the role salt and its uses in dried, pickled, fermented, and of course salted foods played in shaping that history. No dull history here but salty look at how our diet changed over time with wonderful side trips in recipes and menus. Definitely a fun listen.

A very salty history

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