For me, salt is something you use in cooking or at the table. It is also something you put on walkways and roads in the winter when it's frosty. Compared to what is in this book that is like dropping those words into a thimble and then filling it up with, well, salt. I guess I sort of knew that we can't live without salt. Did I think about horses and cows not being able to live without salt? No, even though I knew that pastures had salt licks. I like to think of myself as curious, but I never questioned the existence of those salt licks.

Please note that the subtitle is "A World History". The book opens in China, about 6000 BC. Yes, humans learned how to make salt long, long ago. After China is Roman times and even earlier years of Europe. The book moves west to the Basque country and, for me living in fishing country, this is where it got really interesting because the next thing I knew he was talking about the North Atlantic cod fishery. He crosses the Atlantic to North America and then back again. It is truly a world history of salt.

I like words and this book told me about the origins of some words. The below are from different times and regions.

The Roman army required salt for its soldiers and for its horses and livestock. At times soldiers were even paid in salt, which was the origin of the word salary and the expression "worth his salt" or "earning his salt". In fact, the Latin word sal became the French word solde, meaning pay, which is the origin of the word, soldier.

It became a requirement of prosciutto di Parma that it be made from pigs that had been fed the whey from Parmesan cheese. Less choice parts of pigs fed on this whey qualified to be sent to the nearby town of Felino, where they were ground up and made into salami. (The word salami is derived from the Latin verb to salt)

For a time, the Hanseatics were well appreciated as honorable merchants who ensured the quality and fought against unscrupulous practices. They were known as Easterlings because they came from the east, and this is the origin of the word sterling, which meant "of assured value."

They also ate a great deal of salted herring, though they seem to have preferred lightly salted and smoked red herring, perhaps because of their limited salt supply. When these early settlers hunted, they would leave red herring along their trail because the strong smell would confuse wolves, which is the origin of the expression red herring, meaning "a false trail."

Perhaps you can see that I thought at least parts of this book are 5-stars. Unfortunately, there are also parts - though far fewer - that, for me, were a bit of a slog. Overall, I think this is 4-stars, perhaps a bit above the middle of that group.

Fascinating story starting with the prehistory of the earliest recorded salt producing sites to about the year 2000 and the mass production of salt (most of which is no longer used for food). If you have ever wondered about the little shaker on your table or wanted to see why salt is the only rock we eat this book will tell you.

One of the things I liked best was the inclusion of historical recipes from different cultures and time periods reflecting how the usage of salt has changed through the centuries. It often includes the histories of famous salted things from the Roman garum (the very distant progenitor of ketchup), to kosher lox, to butter.

I also enjoyed learning how salt went from necessity to luxury as supply and demand changed. Most of the modern salt production is no longer made for food, and much has been homogenized into uniform salt crystals controlled by two huge companies. This evolution allowed mass consumers to always get an expected product but also created a niche marked for things like my beloved kosher salt, and the various traditional and sea salts you can now buy at the super food-mart.

It is a history book but even non-historians like myself with any interest in salt will enjoy this book.

What a book! As I was reading it, I wavered between "this is so dense with facts and boring" to "this is sooo interesting." Well, it's both. There were parts that I skimmed over and parts that made me share them immediately. I would want to stop reading then would come to a part about either a place I've visited or a know about from some reason or other, and then I'd be drawn back into the book. I learned a lot, that's for sure. The part dealing with chemistry interested me a great deal. I was surprised by that as I'm not a very scientific person. That being said, I'll admit I was very interested in the book Mauve, which was about organic chemistry. Anyway, if you want to learn lots of facts about salt, read about place all around the world, learn about commerce, industry and rebellion, this is the book for you. Just know that there's a lot that you'll probably skim over - like the many recipes from antiquity for food preparations using salt. I'd love to know what you think of this, if you read it.

Ever wonder about salt? Me either, but I found Kurlansky’s book interesting if not a bit of a grind at times. I could have used a pinch more of the human interest, anthropology focused parts but he had plenty of recipes and food history to satisfy the palate of any foodie. I’m not sure I followed the layout of the book. It was peppered with historical anecdotes and modern analysis within the same chapter. Perhaps a bit parched of a true outline, I didn’t feel salty about it. Overall it cured me of any doubt about the importance of salt.

Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded up because I'll read more of his work

Author Kurlansky's famous for his microhistory Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, so one knows what is coming when selecting one of his books: Lists, lists, lists; lots of vocabulary lessons and smatterings of cultural anthropology. What better time, I ask in all seriousness, than the Plague Lockdown to learn vital (seriously, salt = life) information in a readable, well-researched book? In the vein of Simon Winchester and my doted-on Rose George, dig into Reality with a learnèd guide while enjoying the process.

What an incredible book.
I expected a boring account of salt being used to feed armies, salt roads etc. What I got instead is a fantastic, really well written and humorous account of how a simple commodity like salt affected everything from food and preservation of goods, to countries economies, fueled wars and led to revolutions.
If you like history, this book is for you. Don't be dissuaded by the title. It's not a book about salt, but rather a history of the world and how salt was a protagonist through serendipity, greed, necessity and the forward momentum of advancing technology.

Salt is a meandering popular history through that most commonplace of kitchen aids, salt. Since earliest human history, salt has been valued as a key nutrient, preservative, and enhancer of flavor. A ready supply of salt was at the bottom of ancient military strength, as an army marched on salted provisions.

Salt can be gathered off the ground from dry lake beds, mined from subterranean deposits, or gathered in certain ocean marshes. Along sunny shores, evaporation ponds can hasten the process, while in northern and inland locations, salt must be boiled from brine, a labor and fuel intensive process.

As a popular history, this book plods through the centuries, and mostly discusses Europe, though sophisticated ancient Chinese saltworks get an appreciative nod. Recipes for salted cuisine add human interest. Unfortunately, the book peters out in the industrial era, with a cursory description of modern vacuum distillation boiling and the rise of Big Salt, most famously Morton's brand in the USA. The book is comprehensive and frequently interesting, yet also the very definition of trivial. The closest thing to a thesis are sections on the use of state monopolies of salt as the basis of economic and military power.

This book changed my life. I picked it up because fiction novels were all looking the same to me, and because it was thick enough to last the long train ride from Dusseldorf to Maastricht. School textbooks were the only non-fiction I'd ever read, and they had not prepared me for the vibrant and engaging writing found in Salt. Since reading this book I have become a devoted fan of non-fiction writing, which has exposed me to a whole new world of literature.

The other day I was speaking with my sister, and I asked her, “Why do I associate the book Salt: a World History with you? Have you read it?”

“I have definitely not read it. I remember you telling me about it and I thought, ‘Ah, this is like when quilters get obsessed with quilting and start getting into super-specialized designs and stuff. She must have run out of regular books.’”

I was being mocked. Perhaps for good reason? Several years back it seemed like there was a bevy of micro history titles like this one that explore history through the lens of a single subject. I was quite taken with them and have collected several over the years: Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World, Cod: A Biography of a Fish That Changed the World, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World—and even some with subtitles that didn’t claim to have changed the world—House, Longitude, Pacific, Atlantic, A History of the World In 6 Glasses, The Botany of Desire, and many, many others. I haven’t necessarily read them all, but they do occupy space on my bookshelves.

When I first spotted this title during the first few months of my bookselling career at the Orem Utah Borders store, my co-workers and I had a laugh about the grandiosity of the title. But then I was intrigued by the dust-jacket blurb—

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. 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.

Pretty catchy, right? But it turns out I’m not the right audience for this book. Relief came for me around page 300, when my interest morphed from cold ashes into a valiant flame, flickering—but not flagging—through ‘til the end.

This book was EXTENSIVELY researched. I think the author was loath to exclude even a one of the recipes he gathered, and no detail was too small about the microscopic differences from one salt production or preservation technique from the next. It was exhausting.

I think I thought it would be more a jumping off point to explore history. It was, to some extent (especially the last third of the book), but the first two thirds have got to be written for the legions of those mad fans about salt sauce recipes/salt preservation techniques/salt and fish bliss who I know are roaming the world out there. I am not one of those enthusiasts. It was a TRIAL for me to make my way through the beginning 290+ pages. The next section wasn’t a bed of roses, either, but it was endurable.

But I am glad I read it.

It has already given me fodder for dinner conversation, and, when I passed large bags of Morton salt in Costco this evening, I gave them a knowing smile. It’s like Salt and I just shared a loooooong first date. There won’t be a second date, but “he’s still a great guy—just not to my taste.”

It is a long book with a lot of facts but it brings vast knowledge to the reader. It brings comprehension of the huge impact salt had to World history, trade, politics and influence on so many other nations, foods, places.
I have learnt now everything from how ketchup was made to how Early China economy depended on salt tax.

The history of salt is super interesting, and I learned a lot of amazing facts about human history from reading this book, BUT... the editing was pretty bad. I mean, it has to be pretty bad for you to actually notice that a book is really poorly written. Chapters would end out of nowhere, there were tons of non-sequiturs, etc. It got progressively worse as I got through the book- and then towards the end it became an advertisement for Mortons Salt. I'd recommend this book from a library, but not for purchase.

For a guy who literally looks like the Dos Equis man, Mark Kurlansky has managed to find some of the least interesting subject matter I could imagine and turn them into full histories. Whether it's salt (this one), cod (1988), oysters (2005), or the Basques (1991)...well, okay. A history of the Basques sounds like it has some potential.

My point is: Kurlansky seems to look around for the driest subjects and then to begin to research the heck out of it. And yes, he really does look like the Dos Equis man. "Stay thirsty, my friend."

Mark Kurlansky[/caption]

And let me tell you, reading n  Salt: A World Historyn made me thirsty. And hungry. Between examining the long and storied history of salt over the millennia, Kurlansky peppers the text with recipes in which sodium chloride plays a major, if not crucial, ingredient. Here we see pickling, preservation, and flavoring, and yet, we should not think that Salt: A World History is aimed at the culinary inclined. Kurlansky looks at geography, the rise of civilizations, and the placement of forts. His book is fascinating, including all sorts of salt-related trivia, from the beginnings of Tabasco Sauce to a scheme to introduce camels in the American west's deserts to how salt came to be both common and perfectly granulated. From the location of Roman military depots near salt deposits to the role a shortage in salt played in bringing about the end of the American Civil War, Kurlansky is all over the map.

However, if there is a critique to be made, then it is this all-over-the-map-ness that seems to typify Kurlansky's style. Running from ancient to modern times, Kurlansky doesn't seem to follow a single cohesive narrative, with sections starting and stopping without apparent reason or cohesion. It doesn't detract from the value of the information, but Salt: A World History does make for an occasional dry and eclectic read.