Table of Contents

Salt: A World HistoryIntroduction: The Rock

Part One
A Discourse on Salt, Cadavers, and Pungent Sauces

Chapter One: A Mandate of Salt
Chapter Two: Fish, Fowl, and Pharoahs
Chapter Three: Saltmen Hard as Codfish
Chapter Four: Salt's Salad Days
Chapter Five: Salting It Away in the Adriatic
Chapter Six: Two Ports and the Prosciutto in Between

Part Two
The Glow of Herring and the Scent of Conquest

Chapter Seven: Friday's Salt
Chapter Eight: A Nordic Dream
Chapter Nine: A Well-Salted Hexagon
Chapter Ten: The Hapsburg Pickle
Chapter Eleven: The Leaving of Liverpool
Chapter Twelve: American Salt Wars
Chapter Thirteen: Salt and Independence
Chapter Fourteen: Liberté, Egalité, Tax Breaks
Chapter Fifteen: Preserving Independence
Chapter Sixteen: The War Between the Salts
Chapter Seventeen: Red Salt

Part Three
Sodium's Perfect Marriage

Chapter Eighteen: The Odium of Sodium
Chapter Nineteen: The Mythology of Geology
Chapter Twenty: The Soil Never Sets On . . .
Chapter Twenty-One: Salt and the Great Soul
Chapter Twenty-Two: Not Looking Back
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Last Salt Days of Zigong
Chapter Twenty-Four: Ma, La, and Mao
Chapter Twenty-Five: More Salt than Fish
Chapter Twenty-Six: Big Salt, Little Salt

Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Mark Kurlansky is the New York Times bestselling author of many books, including Cheesecake, The Food of a Younger Land, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World; Salt: A World History; 1968: The Year That Rocked the World; and The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell. He has received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Bon Appetit’s Food Writer of the Year Award, the James Beard Award, and the Glenfiddich Award. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

"Kurlansky finds the world in a grain of salt...fascination and surprise regularly erupt from the detail." —The New York Times Book Review

This is terrific food writing; like fleur de sel, something scarce and to be savored." —San Francisco Chronicle

"Kurlansky continues to prove himself remarkably adept at taking a most unlikely candidate and telling its tale with epic grandeur. " —Los Angeles Times Book Review

"If you are drawn to history and curious about the origins of foods, allow Mark Kurlansky to take you on an incredible journey through the centuries by way of salt." —The Baltimore Sun

"Kurlansky does a masterful job of expanding the reader's horizons....This book of minutely researched data and history can literally make the mouth water." —The Boston Globe

In his latest work, Kurlansky (Cod, The Basque History of the World) is in command of every facet of his topic, and he conveys his knowledge in a readable, easy style. Deftly leading readers around the world and across cultures and centuries, he takes an inexpensive, mundane item and shows how it has influenced and affected wars, cultures, governments, religions, societies, economies, cooking (there are a few recipes), and foods. In addition, he provides information on the chemistry, geology, mining, refining, and production of salt, again across cultures, continents, and time periods. The 26 chapters flow in chronological order, and the cast of characters includes fishermen, kings, Native Americans, and even Gandhi. An entertaining, informative read, this is highly recommended for all collections. [For another book on the topic, see Pierre Laszlo's more esoteric Salt: Grain of Life, LJ 7/01; other recent micro-histories include Joseph Amato's Dust, Mort Rosenblum's Olive, and Tom Vanderbilt's The Sneaker Book. Ed.] Michael D. Cramer, Raleigh, NC Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

"Kurlansky finds the world in a grain of salt...fascination and surprise regularly erupt from the detail." -The New York Times Book ReviewThis is terrific food writing; like fleur de sel, something scarce and to be savored." -San Francisco Chronicle"Kurlansky continues to prove himself remarkably adept at taking a most unlikely candidate and telling its tale with epic grandeur. " -Los Angeles Times Book Review"If you are drawn to history and curious about the origins of foods, allow Mark Kurlansky to take you on an incredible journey through the centuries by way of salt." -The Baltimore Sun"Kurlansky does a masterful job of expanding the reader's horizons....This book of minutely researched data and history can literally make the mouth water." -The Boston Globe