Salt: A world history by Mark Kurlansky, Walker, $28, ISBN
0802713734
THESE portraits of a single substance are a curious genre, aren’t they?
Phosphorus, gold, salt—each provides a slice through human history that
encompasses science, technology, economics, social commentary, religion,
folklore and plenty of anecdotal tales.
Mark Kurlansky made the idea work for cod, and now he turns to salt. For a
renowned food writer, it’s a natural partnership. This is largely a history of
salt as commodity, so we miss out on, say, salt’s centrality to ocean
circulation, the Messinian salinity crisis of 6 million years ago, desalination…
