Monday, October 20, 2014

On the Coffee Table: Mark Kurlansky

Title: Salt: A World History
Author: Mark Kurlansky
via Amazon
I know salt is important for preserving food.  When I was young, I learned about the Romans using salt to pay their soldiers.  From this, we get the word salary.  I've also seen the movie Gandhi so I knew about his march to the sea to gather salt in defiance of the British Empire.  Before reading Salt, that was about the limit of my appreciation for the role salt has played in human history.  I had read Kurlansky before.  His book Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World is outstanding and, if you should read it, will thoroughly convince you that the fishing industry has shaped the history of the North Atlantic for over 1,000 years.  I'd even given Salt a go before, about nine years ago.  Alas, that was a time when pleasure reading was not a big part of my life so I'd go months without picking up the book at all.  As a result, I didn't make it far.  With my new interest in food books, it seemed a good time to give it another try.

Salt is essential to life but it has not always been easily accessible so its trade has been a major part of economies from the beginning.  Salt covers a lot of ground.  Kurlansky's thorough account hits five continents over thousands of years.  He begins with the mining innovations of ancient China and finishes with the Morton Salt company.  In between, he spends most of the book in various corners of Europe but a few chapters are devoted to the impact on Asia and the New World, too.  Apart from food, salt has had numerous industrial applications over the centuries: making gunpowder, curing leather, mining silver, deicing roads, etc.  Salt use has diminished over the past century but remains essential today.

As with Cod, Salt leaves no doubt as to the importance of its subject matter.  Even so, the text is dense at times and some chapters were tougher to get through than others, slipping into that one-damn-thing-after-another feel that is the peril of any history text.  All I want is high intellectual stimulation with trashy-novel digestibility.  Is that really so much to ask?  I am glad to have finally finished the book.  I didn't enjoy it as much as I did Cod but it's certainly a worthwhile read.

32 comments:

  1. I might have to check those out. I actually included the use of salt as money in one of my unpublished novels.

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    1. You definitely should. If you do, please let me know what you think of it.

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  2. Morton Salt image is always in my mind, that little girl with the salt spilling out. We saw something of the salt mines etc when we traveled in Austria.

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    1. Cool! Durnberg? Did you get to slide down the mine shaft? I think claustrophobia would get the best of me on that tour.

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  3. 'All I want is high intellectual stimulation with trashy-novel digestibility. Is that really so much to ask?'

    :)

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  4. Salt makes me think of the town where I was born: Hutchinson, Kansas.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. I've never been to Hutchinson but my college girlfriend was from Salina (salt in that name, too) and she had friends in Hutch. That all seems so long ago now!

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    2. Yes, we always called it Hutch. I've been to Salina.

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    3. Unfortunately, my main association with Hutchinson is a sad one. Once while we were visiting her family, Hutchinson friends of theirs - teenagers, in fact - were killed in a car/train collision. Very upsetting.

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  5. That does sound lovely and much better than that horrible Angelina Jolie movie.

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    1. Ha! I don't know the film but I'm guessing you're right.

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    2. I liked that Angelina Jolie movie. I don't think I ever dislike anything she's in.

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    3. You know, I think I've only seen one of her movies: Pushing Tin.

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  6. When I was able to read so long ago ... I read Salt.
    But as you, I had to put it down and pick it up again. I liked it but it was a slog sometimes. Cod sounds interesting but I don't think i will ever be able to read it.
    As a side note one of my long ago friends did the re-design of the Morton Salt girl and package in the 60's There was lots of talk about not showing her panties. Sitting around the table with older men in suits must have been interesting.
    As always so love @Suze comments.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. I preferred Cod. Before I read it, I never would have bought the premise but was completely sold by the end.

      No doubt those were interesting meetings! That must be the current label. As far as I can tell, they haven't had a redesign since 1968.

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    2. My friends have always done fabulous. One is retired from her own company and now works part time for a NY agency. From Morton Salt, Allied Van Lines gosh I just can't remember. We were all Commercial Artists
      One's friends client was the owner of the Twin Towers. Lots of News Paper work. I did invitations for Museum.
      Although I only watched a few episodes Mad Men is how we all worked. You burn out, I cut out early and went the Hallmark Greeting Card route.
      Sitting around the table was hard.

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    3. I was tempted to ask you about Mad Men. In many ways, rather frightening to think that it's realistic.

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    4. Remember we didn't have computers like today lots of work was by hand. Working 24 hours straight till it was done. One older friend came back from NY with ulcers. My best friend did really great. Worked for one of the biggest ad agencies in NY. when they split she started a small firm with a partner. But she worked all the time.
      I thought I would go with Hallmark because I wanted to do books but I wasn't a great fit. They were a great company though. I did more freelance work.
      I miss it though.

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    5. A different time - and a very different industry from mine! It sounds like you have a lot of fond memories of that life.

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  7. It sounds interesting and so does the cod one. I'm not sure if I'll actually get around to checking these out, but I could.

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    1. If you do, start with Cod. And actually, reading the one leads quite naturally into the other as the histories of salt and cod are closely linked. My guess is the study of one inspired study of the other. In between was a book about the Basques, also linked to both.

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  8. Sounds interesting, but yes, salt is necessary.

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  9. Both are books I'd love to read at some point.

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  10. I can say I would have never imagined someone could write an entire book on salt and make it intellectual!

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    1. Oh, it's fascinating stuff! Rough going at times but I learned plenty.

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  11. I don't think it's too much to ask at all! haha. But I guess if an historian wants to keep his or her credibility, they do have to write in that dry, black & white way.

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    1. I wouldn't go so far as to call it dry. Kurlansky writes well. The book is dense at times, requiring the reader's equivalent of a machete, whatever that would be.

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  12. I think this book is full of lots of interesting information. I think I would enjoy a less dense version- but maybe it is a book I could read in chunks of time. :)
    ~Jess

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    1. I think one could go one chapter at a time. Just don't go nine years in between!

      I don't mean to imply that Kurlansky's writing isn't engaging. He's really very good. Still, there's a lot of info to digest.

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