From AudioFile
Salt is the only rock that animals, including humans, not only eat, but require to stay alive. Scott Brick shakes the sodium crystals of Kurlansky's book, giving a salacious twist to the role of a mineral in the scientific, economic, political, religious, and culinary life of humankind. This geological product has served as a preservative, a currency, and a source of legend and superstition. Brick's mouth seems to savor the words as he tells of the ideas and events in the history of this kitchen condiment. Even in our blood-pressure-conscious era, when salt is often shunned, this audiobook is a fascinating tonic. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Présentation de l'éditeur
Homer called it a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. As Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates here, salt has shaped civilisation from the beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind. Wars have been fought over salt and, while salt taxes secured empires across Europe and Asia, they have also inspired revolution - Gandhi's salt march in 1930 began the overthrow of British rule in India. From the rural Sichuan province where the last home-made soya sauce is made to the Cheshire brine springs that supplied salt around the globe, Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of world history, a multilayered masterpiece that blends political, commercial, scientific, religious and culinary records into a rich and memorable tale
