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A review by karathagan
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
informative
medium-paced
3.75
Non-fiction #24 of 2023! One more to go. I have read several Kurlansky books - I loved Paper and enjoyed Cod, and have a couple others on my list.
First thing I noticed about this book is how there is some information reused from Cod. As I looked through titles of his other books, I realize several overlap. For instance, Salt was hugely important to the preservation fo food and enormous segments of the global population relied on salted fish - also huge in Cod. Same for flash freezing and the Birdseye story. He has other books about fishing and a biography of Birdseye.
Second thing I kept noticing is that there were a lot of disarticulated lists of facts. Disjointed spoutings of unconnected subjects and events with no segues. Still overall very interesting, with a lot of varied impacts that I would not have expected in a study of salt. Politics and state formation, geography and geological formations, technology, drilling, painting, smuggling, transport, poetry, etc.. Very thorough and made me want to be informed on trade, laws, and history of commodities. Good book, will read more from author.
First thing I noticed about this book is how there is some information reused from Cod. As I looked through titles of his other books, I realize several overlap. For instance, Salt was hugely important to the preservation fo food and enormous segments of the global population relied on salted fish - also huge in Cod. Same for flash freezing and the Birdseye story. He has other books about fishing and a biography of Birdseye.
Second thing I kept noticing is that there were a lot of disarticulated lists of facts. Disjointed spoutings of unconnected subjects and events with no segues. Still overall very interesting, with a lot of varied impacts that I would not have expected in a study of salt. Politics and state formation, geography and geological formations, technology, drilling, painting, smuggling, transport, poetry, etc.. Very thorough and made me want to be informed on trade, laws, and history of commodities. Good book, will read more from author.