"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."
— John Muir
In Salt: A World History, journalist and author Mark Kurlansky traces the common mineral's fascinating story throughout the ages. The only rock that we eat has a center-stage role in ancient Rome's culinary confections, Charles Darwin's exploration of Patagonia, Gandhi's civil disobedience against Britain, and tales of norse Vikings terrorizing the French coastline. The book explores these stories and others in it's dense, but quick-reading 449 pages.
Right from the Introduction, which explores Homer, Plato, and organized religions' fascination with the substance, I was hooked. The fusion of food, history, and science into captivating stories full of quirky anecdotes was terrific. {JG}
Right from the Introduction, which explores Homer, Plato, and organized religions' fascination with the substance, I was hooked. The fusion of food, history, and science into captivating stories full of quirky anecdotes was terrific. {JG}
FAVORITE SECTIONS
Chapter 21: Salt and the Great Soul — The history of the British Empire's salt tax on India, and Gandhi's salt campaign of 1885 to resist colonization and exploitation.
Chapter 14: Liberté, Egalité, Tax Breaks — How a French king forced all citizens over 8 years old to buy 15.4 pounds of salt at fixed prices, and forbade them from using most of it!
Chapter 16: The War Between the Salts — The crucial role of saltworks in the American Civil War to feed livestock, treat soldiers' wounds, and make saltpeter (gunpowder).
Chapter 1: A Mandate of Salt — Ancient China's state-controlled salt monopolies, which financed the Great Wall, entire armies against the Mongols, and a booming peasant-based economy.
Chapter 14: Liberté, Egalité, Tax Breaks — How a French king forced all citizens over 8 years old to buy 15.4 pounds of salt at fixed prices, and forbade them from using most of it!
Chapter 16: The War Between the Salts — The crucial role of saltworks in the American Civil War to feed livestock, treat soldiers' wounds, and make saltpeter (gunpowder).
Chapter 1: A Mandate of Salt — Ancient China's state-controlled salt monopolies, which financed the Great Wall, entire armies against the Mongols, and a booming peasant-based economy.
THINGS I LEARNED
{ * } Thomas Jefferson's favorite salted-ham recipe! (218)
{ * } Human bodies float on top of the Dead Sea because of it's high concentration of salt (24% not the ocean's typical 3-4%) (356)
{ * } The Romans, called a man in love 'salax' (in a salted state), which is the origin for the word 'salacious'. Ancient Egyptians also linked salt with sexual desire, and their priests abstained from it. (Intro)
{ * } 'Salary,' 'Worth his salt,' & 'Earning his salt' all originate from Latin 'Sal' which has to do with money. Throughout history, soldiers have been paid in salt. 'Salad' means 'salted' in Latin; the Romans salted their cabbage to make it less bitter. (63)
{ * } Apicius, the world's oldest known cookbook, includes a salted fish dish from ancient Rome. (73)
{ * } The Hanseatic League ('Hanse' is German for 'fellowship') operated in the 13th and 14th centuries, as a series of salt and fishing businesses who pooled their knowledge and resources to establish quality control of their product, combat theft and piracy, establish contracts, and build lighthouses. (140)
{ * } "Studying a road map of almost anywhere in North America...[you] could reasonably assume that the towns were placed and interconnected haphazardly without any scheme of design. That is because the roads are simply widened footpaths and trails, and these trails were originally cut my animals looking for salt." (200)
{ * } During the American Revolution, the English blockaded New England's saltworks and those in the South to starve Washington's troops, horses, and cut medical supplies in the Mid-Atlantic. To combat this, the Continental Congress offered incentives for foreigners to come trade salt, and exempted salt workers from military service. (221)
{ * } The San Francisco bay area was a sacred place to the Ohlone Indians, who travelled to collect salt in the marshes, which evaporated with the help of the coastal winds. Circa 1795, a Spanish priest Jose Danti, discovered this and forced the Ohlone to share the profits and work the salt for the sake of Spain and the Mission San Jose. (282)
{ * } Charles Darwin observed red salt-formation due to micro-organisms ('Brine Shrimp') in Patagonia. (287)
{ * } "Advice and salt are available to anyone who wants it." — Breton Proverb
{ * } Human bodies float on top of the Dead Sea because of it's high concentration of salt (24% not the ocean's typical 3-4%) (356)
{ * } The Romans, called a man in love 'salax' (in a salted state), which is the origin for the word 'salacious'. Ancient Egyptians also linked salt with sexual desire, and their priests abstained from it. (Intro)
{ * } 'Salary,' 'Worth his salt,' & 'Earning his salt' all originate from Latin 'Sal' which has to do with money. Throughout history, soldiers have been paid in salt. 'Salad' means 'salted' in Latin; the Romans salted their cabbage to make it less bitter. (63)
{ * } Apicius, the world's oldest known cookbook, includes a salted fish dish from ancient Rome. (73)
{ * } The Hanseatic League ('Hanse' is German for 'fellowship') operated in the 13th and 14th centuries, as a series of salt and fishing businesses who pooled their knowledge and resources to establish quality control of their product, combat theft and piracy, establish contracts, and build lighthouses. (140)
{ * } "Studying a road map of almost anywhere in North America...[you] could reasonably assume that the towns were placed and interconnected haphazardly without any scheme of design. That is because the roads are simply widened footpaths and trails, and these trails were originally cut my animals looking for salt." (200)
{ * } During the American Revolution, the English blockaded New England's saltworks and those in the South to starve Washington's troops, horses, and cut medical supplies in the Mid-Atlantic. To combat this, the Continental Congress offered incentives for foreigners to come trade salt, and exempted salt workers from military service. (221)
{ * } The San Francisco bay area was a sacred place to the Ohlone Indians, who travelled to collect salt in the marshes, which evaporated with the help of the coastal winds. Circa 1795, a Spanish priest Jose Danti, discovered this and forced the Ohlone to share the profits and work the salt for the sake of Spain and the Mission San Jose. (282)
{ * } Charles Darwin observed red salt-formation due to micro-organisms ('Brine Shrimp') in Patagonia. (287)
{ * } "Advice and salt are available to anyone who wants it." — Breton Proverb
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Kurlansky is a journalist and bestselling author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed The World, The Basque History of the World, and thirty other books. I'm particularly excited to dive into Paper: Paging Through History for obvious reason and will report back soon!
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Illustration of a French Paludier ("swamp worker"), in his surprisingly spiffy 17th Century attire. Here's to dressing for the job you want, not the job you have!