flawed but fascinating
"Salt: A World History" is exactly what the title advertises: stories about the production, trade, and use of salt from our earliest archaeological and written records through to modern times.

Kurlansky's writing is serviceable at best and more often rather clunky,repetitious, and tin-eared -- no one will ever accuse him of being a great prose stylist or a master storyteller. He doesn't have the most developed historical sense, which means that bits of information float in discreet units, bereft of context or full interpretation. And he has a *thing* about the Basques, which I have noticed turning up in his other work as well -- I think he tends to insert information he knows well (such as Basque history) into historical moments he's less sure of, so as to sound more knowledgeable than he perhaps truly is.

Nevertheless, the stories Kurlansky has to tell are fascinating enough to mostly overcome those difficulties. As a bonus, each chapter can more or less stand on its own, so you can space your reading in bite-sized chunks, as it were -- "Salt" is a great book to bring to a waiting room or on a bus ride.

In summary, "Salt" is an interesting book, but with too many flaws for me to recommend buying it. Borrow a copy from the library instead.

A great read
This book took an item we take for granted today, salt, and discussed its history. Some have criticized the author for including so many recipes. I disagree. Salt is used in cooking after all, and to put salt into a proper context we need to witness how it was used.

I enjoyed how the author wove the various aspects of the salt trade into a coherent history. For instance, that salt was so important in wartime never struck me before, though it seems obvious now.

A good, hard to put down read, Salt: A World History is a good book for people who like history, economics or the culinary arts.

Reads like someone's lame thesis
Man, this didn't work at all for me. Here's why:

- It zipped past the ancient history (which is what I like) and spent most of its time on European and (white) American history (which I usually already know and don't care about anyway).

- You know how in college you would find some weird tangent to write your paper on so it would seem somewhat original? This book feels like a whole bunch of those essays. I get it, salt was important, but it still feels forced sometimes.

- After a while, you start to get that dreaded "I'm reading history" feeling, where it all starts to look like a list of names and dates. It's totally possible to write history without writing lists; I just don't think this book pulled it off.

Here's the impression I came away from this book with: "15th-century Germans really liked salt. Here's how they made it. You know who else liked salt? 16th-century French people. Here's a recipe that uses salt. Guess who else liked salt?" Ad infinitum.

Meh.

Indiana Jones, this IS history
Remembering 2nd semester of Western Civ with a dynamic prof who loved to use the "spectrum of history" to link events...food, religion, war, hobbies, work. That is how this book is read and you must eat the whole salty pretzel to get the flavor. You must try not to quibble with a few sweeping generalizations and dwell on the great facts that link this history together. A great prequel or sequel to "COD"

well written and fun

Prepare to be A"salt"ed :-)
This book is a relatively light look at how SALT has played a major roll in shaping our world and even the very language we use. The author has deeply researched the subject, compiling a very quick and fun read. While some of the historical ties might be overstated in parts, the roll of SALT really is undeniably important to both human survival and our culture.

One unexpected benefit of reading this book is that you can be the only "expert" on SALT around almost any table, a great way to fill those awkward long silences at company gatherings :-) I also recommend Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World for the same reasons.

Recommended!