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The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell

mark kurlansky

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Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants–the oyster.

For centuries New York was famous for this particular shellfish, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s life that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for all classes, and a natural filtration system for the city’s congested waterways.

Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the seventeenth-century founding of New York to the death of its oyster beds and the rise of America’s environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan’s Gilded Age dining chambers. With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2005

This edition

Format
336 pages, Paperback
Published
January 9, 2007 by Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN
9780345476395
ASIN
0345476395
Language

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mark kurlansky

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Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
34(34%)
4 stars
37(37%)
3 stars
29(29%)
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
ludiio
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This sort of felt like they didn't have enough content. There were long digressions about things that were tangentially related to oysters in NY, but also digressions off those digressions. I think I would've liked something more focused, and also was maybe a little more focused on the ecological story of the destruction of NYC's oyster population.
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sneepsnop
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book was fantastic!!! Informative! I now know everything I ever wanted to know about the oyster ... and I don't even like to eat them! So very interesting from a historical perspective.
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blacoffee
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I picked this book because I love Mark Kurlansky, and I love food writing, I love oysters, and I had read a lot of books in a row that I hadn’t picked for myself, so I deserved it, as a treat! I really recommend Salt particularly, as a book, though Cod is excellent also. What he does best is these human histories through the lens of a particular food that he’s decided to get really excited about.

Broadly speaking, this is a history of New York City told through oysters. It takes it from the early days when it was New Amsterdam to about the 1930s, and it hits that perfect Kurlansky vibe of slipping in some real historical knowledge while ostensibly you’re just talking about an important aspect of food culture. He has a certain type of bonhomie in the way he talks about New York and food that makes what I was worried was so much more of a microhistory than Salt and Cod that I wasn’t going to enjoy it as much kind, of like talking to that one weird friend you have who knows hyperspecific facts about some inane detail of the world, and you SHOULD be annoyed but actually it’s rather charming*.

The book does lag a bit when he starts dropping recipes into it plainly--I never much care for that in most food histories--and so the back third is a bit tedious at times. I did love him lightly bullying Chaz Dickens, though.

*On this note, I will be dropping all of my new oyster knowledge on anyone unlucky enough to be in range when oysters appear.
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Stefanbishopton
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Typical Kurlansky, in that he uses a very small topic to explore very big themes. I did not know that oysters used to be the food of the poor, that New York used to be a major oyster producer, and that the typical New York eatery was an oyster saloon.

New York harbor used to be filled with oysters, until they were killed off by pollution and overharvesting. The pollution, however, is from about a hundred years ago. As the Hudson becomes cleaner, the oysters are very slowly coming back. If they every return in their previous numbers, then they will be able to keep the harbor clean.

The book tries to make a case for oysters being complicated. While Kurlansky doesn't come out and say it, he strongly hints that oysters can feel pain. They do not. They have a nervous system, but not a central nervous system. I wish he had been clearer about this, because I was racked with guilt for eating raw oysters. My brother and I like to talk about starting an oyster farm together, and all those dreams would have died if oysters could feel pain. Shame on you, Mark Kurlansky!

Kurlansky is best when he describes social history, like how bad life was in Five points. He also describes pockets of New York that were scandalous for being integrated. Much of our modern lives would have been scandalous in the past; any woman dining alone was assumed to be a prostitute. Ladies' clubs formed because there was nowhere women could go by themselves or with a couple friends. At one point, Kurlansky describes a European bakery shocking New York because the owner's wife worked the cash register, which meant she was allowed near the money. Insanity!

It is so easy to forget how far we have come, and how much farther we have to go. I think bringing back the oysters is a good goal. Before my brother and I start our farm, I want to read a history of oysters in the Chesapeake!
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Doofenheimer
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This is Kurlansky's incredibly detailed and historical review of a dynamic ecological estuary that served mankind for centuries with mollusks, fish, and viable culture from the 1700's until its death. While New Amsterdam became New York, the introduction of a massive population throughout the region eventually devastated the estuary. The 'Big Apple' could easily have been known as the 'Big Oyster' until overharvesting, water quality, and industrial pollution destroyed Hudson Bay and the region. The story told in Kurlansky's very readable epic is our history, and the results show how incredibly poignant the impact of human consumption can be...we can simply love it to death.
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Among_1996
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I found this a rather tedious slog and also did finish it because the subject is close to my heart. The early view of New York's harbor is such a world away and it is amazing to contemplate; I think the author too often sensationalizes (and he doesn't need to include umpteen oyster recipes??), so that the writing gets in the way of the underlying history itself. I both can't recommend it and am always fascinated by the glimpses of New York ion earlier times.
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Nilvius
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Oysters are one of the only animals eaten raw.
Grow well in harbors and estuaries like around New York.
First used by the indigenous people.
Then by the Dutch, who settled the company on the island, built Wall Street to keep out the British. The British came by sea. The British took over the government from the Dutch.Then things regressed for the revolutionary war. Erie Canal, steamboats, railroad for export. Fancy French restaurants starting up. Going from naturally harvesting to a cultivating. Raw sewage, cholera, typhoid. Chemical pollutants.
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Tekumi
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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The history of New York as you've never read it before. Doubles a tale of caution as we continue to treat our natural world as an infinite resource.
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