Customer Reviews

The Story of Salt

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A deceptively easy and entertaining read, this book is filled with fascinating information, such as:

Whoever controls the world's salt supply is the superpower (right now it's the US!)

Salt is necessary to the functioning of our bodies--which is part of why early humans ate meat (and why we still crave salty pretzels).

Roads in many places in America wind so much because of the meanderings of animals in search of salt.

The research seems thorough (not my area of expertise but it has the ring of truth to it) and the facts are well-presented. Nice illustrations, too.

I was initially put off by the title "The Story of Salt"--yikes, that sounded dull. And in the hands of someone else it might have been. This is such an enjoyable read I'll be looking for anything else by this author.

Salt. Who would have thought something so simple, so seemingly common (to Americans) could control the world? Can it? Does it? Mark Kurlansky and S.D. Schindler reveal the significant and necessary role of salt in man's history in The Story of Salt, a condensed version of Salt: A World History, Kurlansky's best-seller for adults.

Speaking of canning, the duo show the discovery of canning with airtight, heated jars (p. 38). Just as with the discovery of salt as a preservative, then the next step in salt's progress was canning and frozen foods.

But back to the beginning. That is what the book does: It shows textually and pictorially how seeking sources of salt became essential to the growth of civilizations. As wanderers, men could eat the flesh of animals and get a necessary amount of salt. However, once people formed settlements, they had to go out to find salt sources. In nearly all cases, by-products were discovered: natural gas, secondary foods (cheese, sauerkraut, bacon), international trade, soy sauce, mummies, transporting without spoilage, salt fish, exploration, trade organizations, meatpacking, roads, new industries, independence, and oil drilling. This is a significant list. Each item is featured, illustrated, explained in a delightful manner from one block to a two-page spread of artwork and text.

For example, in Hallein, a Celtic settlement whose name means "saltwork," Celts used salt to preserve the thigh of hog to create ham. A block on the next page (23) shows a preserved Celt (known by their colorful clothing), who had been trapped in a collapsed salt mine around 400 B.C.

Other examples are the trade organizations formed by seacoast countries with cod fishing and inland countries with salt mines, e.g. the English and the Portuguese, the Germans and Italians. Prior to the War for Independence, the colonists traded their Virginia hams for Liverpool's salt. The war forced colonists to find their own salt source, which they did to became independent in more ways than one.

A highly informative text loaded with illustrations, this book could well serve teachers and librarians in web research projects: salt in the middle with all the peripheral products and events spoking outward, with each one assigned to a team or group to research further, then create a powerpoint or other software presentation. Think of the multiple intelligences generated, much as salt generates other things. And certainly not common!

A highly fascinating and recommended book!

A fascinating story accompanied by gorgeous illustrations, author and illustrator manage to convey some very complex and far reaching events in a way that is completely understandable. Lots for anyone to learn and the illustrations are very fine.

I ordered this book for my son, who loves science, because I loved the adult version so much.
It is a fantastic abbreviation. Mark Kurlansky was brilliant to make compelling but clear kids' versions of his already excellent publications!

Disappointed. I thought I was buying the actual book "Salt" by Kurlansky. This is a sort of children's illustrated book. An illustrated synopsis. Its well done, I suppose, but the seller didn't go to any pains to tell me what it was from the description. It was inexpensive enough, but I thought I was buying a used book.