Because our need for salt is so fundamental, its history encompasses that of humanity. Salt was basic to many economies, Kurlansky notes. It's acted as the basis of exchange between traders, was the target of empire builders and even paid out to soldiers as a form of "salary" - hence the term. Venice, a coastal city tucked away from the main tracks of Mediterranean trade, bloomed into prominence when it discovered it could garner more profit by trading in salt than by manufacturing it. The Venetian empire and later renaissance was founded on the salt trade.

Empires may be built on salt, but can be felled by misguided policies on its trade and consumption. One element leading to the downfall of the French monarchy was the hated "gabelle", or salt tax, which imposed a heavier burden on farming peasants than it did on the aristocracy. The reputation of tax evasion borne by the French relates to the resentment expressed over the salt tax. A British regulation on salt resulted in similar reaction leading to the breakup up their own Empire. It was a "march to the sea" led by Mahatma Ghandi to collect salt that galvanised resistance to British rule. Over a century after the French Revolution, the British were displaced from India for similar reasons - greed.

While acknowledging the importance of salt in our lives, Kurlansky notes that determining how much is "too little" or "too much" is elusive. Many people today claim to have "salt-free" diets while remaining ignorant of how much salt is contained in our foods, both naturally and through processing. Yet, as Kurlansky records, salt has appeal beyond just the body's needs. He records numerous commentators from ancient Egypt, China and Rome who express their admiration for salt's flavour-adding qualities. Sauces based on various ingredients mixed with salt permeate the book. He notes that the salt dispenser is a modern innovation, supplementing the use of salt in cooking processes.

Salt's decline in conserving food, which changed the amount of salt we consume directly, came about due to increased world trade, displacement of rural populations into cities, and, of course, war. "The first blow" displacing salt as a preservative came from a Parisian cook; a man so obscure that his given name remains disputed. Nicolas [Francois?] Appert worked out how to preserve meat by "canning". Adopted by Napoleon's armies, the technique spread rapidly. The technology of the Industrial Revolution led to effective refrigeration. Kurlansky gives an account of Clarence Birdseye's efforts to found what became a major industry.

Although the topic seems overspecialised, the universal application and long historical view of this book establishes its importance. Kurlansky has successfully met an immense challenge in presenting a wealth of information. That he graces what might have been a dry pedantic exercise with recipes, anecdotes, photographs and maps grants this book wide appeal. He's to be congratulated for his worldly view and comprehensive presentation. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]


A book to read with a grain of salt   April 23, 2003
 88 out of 99 found this review helpful

I was browsing the new releases section of my local library when I happened to see this book. It had an interesting premise, and looked to be unlike any book I'd read before. I've read histories of people and places, but never of ingredients. I checked it out skeptically, and was pleasantly surprised.
Kurlansky is a very talented writer, he manages to make salt suspenseful. The book's purpose is to examine how salt affected the history of the world. He succeeds in this. However, the history is not really coherent, it doesn't really flow. Salt is essentially a collection of vignettes. These vignettes are grouped in chronological order. The first part of the book deals with salt in China and Rome. Part 2 concerns salt's effect in the Middle Ages and the wars of independence. Part 3 concludes the history by examining salt in modern times.
The main failing of this extensively researched account is Kurlansky attempts to link salt to every major world event. According to him, dissatisfaction with the salt tax led to the American and French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution came to be because of salt, and salted foods allowed the world to be explored. Nonetheless, the history is accessible and a fun to read, even if some of the author's conclusions are a bit off base.


Factual errors and wild speculation?   September 22, 2005
 26 out of 35 found this review helpful

Do yourself a favor and read all the reviews here. Pay particular attention to the reviews about factual errors. Watch out for reviewers who obviously didn't read the book. I can see how the book is entertaining for some and fascinating for others, but the factual errors about the chemistry and geology of salt are really troubling to me. If there are several untrue and misleading statements that I caught because I am familiar with one subject, then how many more can be expected? It's like television in a book and reminds me that popular historical accounts can't be trusted.

After reading a few chapters I wondered about several stories that jumped around. A lot of statements and a few whole paragraphs seemed more specualtive than anything else. So I decided to move onto something I knew more about and hoped to learn something useful in the process. The chapter on the geology of salt barely covers the geology of salt. It talked more about preserving food and petroleum geology. Either the author applied too much artistic license or he really has a beef with geologists. In the closing statements of the chapter he says in so many words that geologist never know what they are talking about. I should have known from the title of the chapter, "The Mythology of Geology." This might be true about some geologists, but at least try to do a little better with readily available information. Scholars have a responsibility to the general public to be as accurate and precise as possible about the information we present.

Aside from the terribly incorrect statements about chemistry noted by another reviewer, there are some problems with the geological accounts. Contrary to what the author tells you, we do know why the oceans are salty, we know how large salt deposits form, and salt domes trap oil that formed somewhere else.


A Terrible, Terrible Book   October 28, 2003
 18 out of 31 found this review helpful

I'm going to cut to the chase. This is literally the worst book I've ever read, and there's a whole book club full of fellow voracious, intelligent readers who agree with me. Only one of us held on to the last, stultifying page, the rest of us having dropped off well before the halfway mark. Reading even that much was an momentous sacrifice in itself.

The book fails in every way: It is poorly organized, hopping around from topic to topic so ridiculously that it's nearly impossible for the reader to get a good general picture of the history of salt. It is incredibly poorly written; I would bet that no editor took a red pen to that manuscript. If one did, then he/she should be fired. I am talking cringe-inducing prose, here. It is boring, unless you like the idea of reading pages and pages and pages about how salt is used to--here's a shocker-cure meat and fish and make pickles. Want to learn, ad nauseum, about fermented fish sauce? This is the book for you! It is sophomoric; there is virtually no original analysis in these pages. The author has done nothing more than take other people's research and put it together in his own way. I learned back in high school that much of the value of a research paper is the original analysis the author provides, which proves he/she has actually done some thinking about the topic. No such thought is in evidence here. This book is nothing more than an tedious research paper that wouldn't garner a C at a decent university. The only reason I bothered to write this review is that I am shocked this book ever got published. Shame on Penguin!


Salt of the Earth---Chemical Heritage magazine   March 12, 2003
 17 out of 19 found this review helpful

Salt is a multidisciplinary historical look at salt, a material closely tied to civilization. As its title claims, it is a history of the world from the perspective of salt. The book is hard to put down with attention grabbing chapters such as ySaltys Salad Days,y yThe Leaving of Liverpool,y yThe Odium of Sodium,y yBig salt, Little Salty and yThe War Between the Salts.y Since the author has received an award for excellence in food writing, it should come as no surprise that the text contains its share of historical recipes.
In the course of the book we are introduced to an astonishing range of cultures and visit many areas where salt has been found and harvested. From Egypt to China, Rome and the Celts, India, Africa and America, the story moves back and forth, skipping between time periods and cultures. The reader is assisted in the journey by well-drawn maps. I especially enjoyed learning about the many ways salt has been harvested, from the sea, evaporating brines or mining rock salt. I also was intrigued by the influence of salt on fields diverse as economics, taxes, politics and technology. For example, we learn about how Gandhi and Indian independence got its start in rebellion against oppressive salt taxes leveled on the Indians so that British salt makers would have a market for their surplus salt.
In the book we meet salt-connected people like Li Bing, governor of what is now Sichuan in 250 B.C.E. and a hydraulic engineering genius. Besides building the worldys first large scale dam for flood control and irrigation, and opening up central China for widespread agriculture, Li Bing was the first to drill for salt brine. The author shows how this naturally led to our geologic understanding of salt domes and eventually how to drill for oil in such domes. At this time the Chinese became the first to tax salt and attempt to fix its price, something hard to do with such a cheap and readily available material.
It is in his slant towards food that the author is most comfortable, talking about the many ways salt and food intersect. We and introduced to salt and food preservation, spices and flavorings, sour kraut and salted meat, fish and fishing, even the harvesting and production of caviar. There are two chapters on Avery Island in Louisiana, the first on salt mining by the Avery family which supplied much of the Confederacyys salt, the second on Edmund McIlhenny combining two products of the island y hot chili peppers and salt y to make Tabasco sauce.
The book appears to randomly skip around between cultures and time periods, visiting China and America several times. It also ignores any time period later than mid twentieth century and does little with modern, nonfood uses of salt. The author gives no citations or footnotes for his many quotes or facts, relying instead on a fairly extensive bibliography including books and a few articles. While he talks about the science of salt in parts of a few chapters, I would have liked to learn more. He does fairly well with the changes in technology involved with salt. While I enjoyed reading the book it left me with many historical and scientific questions unanswered. Its real strength is in describing the historical relationship between salt and food. I found it pleasant to read.