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lizlogan's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
5.0
This is a very slow and thoughtful book, but it is an excellent read. I bought it because I wanted a book on the history of the Silk Road and the spices traded on it. This is a book about the spices traded on routes off the road and the history surrounding it - my mistake, but still a delightful book!
From the very first spice, frankincense, there is a wealth of information and the author takes you on his own personal journey as well. There are recipes listed to try (although most of them are not realistically accessible, they are intriguing) and little embedded notes about each spice.
The history is deep and fascinating and links well throughout the book - from the Middle East to Mexico with a handful of spices!
devind9bde's review
4.0
A fascinating look at the early multicultural history of the spice trade. This book raises important questions about globalization, most notably:
“Of the more than 6800 linguistically encoded cultural world views that have emerged on this planet, why have only a handful enabled and driven the trajectory of the worldwide spice trade? Or, why have the three monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam played such dominant roles in cultural, ecological, and culinary imperialism? I have no answer to these crucial questions and I believe that it will take a long time and many minds to resolve them. But one tenet in which I do believe is that this trio of monotheistic religions and our modern economic structures emerged from the same ideologies, and that even today, they are not that far removed from one another.”
“Of the more than 6800 linguistically encoded cultural world views that have emerged on this planet, why have only a handful enabled and driven the trajectory of the worldwide spice trade? Or, why have the three monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam played such dominant roles in cultural, ecological, and culinary imperialism? I have no answer to these crucial questions and I believe that it will take a long time and many minds to resolve them. But one tenet in which I do believe is that this trio of monotheistic religions and our modern economic structures emerged from the same ideologies, and that even today, they are not that far removed from one another.”
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