Salt a world history by mark kurlansky review

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky (Author). From the Bestselling Writer of Cod and The Basque History of the World. In his fifth work of nonfiction, Mark Kurlansky turns his attention to a common family merchandise with a protracted and intriguing historical past: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very start, and its story is a glittering, typically surprising a part of the historical past of humankind. A substance so worthwhile it served as foreign money, salt has influenced the institution of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and impressed revolutions. Populated by colorful characters and filled with an endless collection of fascinating particulars, Salt by Mark Kurlansky is a supremely entertaining, multi-layered masterpiece.

Mark Kurlansky is the creator of many books together with Cod, The Basque Historical past of the World, 1968, and The Large Oyster. His newest book is Birdseye.

Reading the opposite opinions I see that almost everyone both loves it or hates it. I loved it. Salt was what Oil is today. I cut bait on an e book if it’s not fascinating to me and I had no problem studying this cover to cover. I’m a non-fiction reader and an enterprise person, not a literary sort or a writer, so stylistic issues that other reviewers surfaced didn’t bother me. I additionally loved Giles Milton’s “Nathaniel’s Nutmeg.”

Kurlansky’s research is comparatively complete. There was no point out of Central Asian nations, which have had quite a salt saga of their own, but in any other case Kurlansky does an excellent job of including all of salt’s main roles in world history. Extra inclusions would probably have made the e-book excessively long and would have risked losing the reader’s interest. It is excellent because it is.

The joy of this ebook, nonetheless, as fascinating because the TOPIC is, is Kurlansky’s WRITING. He has the best mix of dry humor–nearly unnoticeable except you are on the lookout for it–and easy delivery that I have ever come across. He makes a subject that might lend itself to relatively boring prose and retains the tone mild without shedding the informational value of his work. I am totally impressed, and hope that he will now write books on each commodity by which I have a curiosity, so that I never must learn anybody else describe a commodity again.

Salt: A World History

Mark Kurlansky (Author)

498 pages

Penguin Books (January 28, 2003)

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