Cod: A Biography Of The Fish That Changed The World

Brian Hinkle

Dr. Steven Gores

Honors College Writing

10/8/2017

Salt- A history Mark Kurlansky was born in Hartford, Connecticut and attended Butler University. Receiving a BA in Theater in 1970, Kurlansky worked in New York as a playwright, ultimately leading him to writing his first book, “cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World”, which quickly became a new york times bestseller, and it would not be his last. The book that this essay is about is Salt: A World History, is exactly as the name implies, little more than a history of salt. The story of salt as told by Kurlansky is far more complex than it might first appear, and the book is divided into three

The Chinese and the Egyptians were the first to use salt on a large scale, as the Egyptians collected evaporated salt from the sea and the Nile and they used the salt in their food, and the egyptians also used salt for their most famous ritual, covering the body with salt to preserve it, the effects are still seen to this day. The Chinese used evaporated salt to salt fish and to create a condiment that has lasted for generations, soy sauce. It was the Romans though, with their fish based diet that really used salt as a predominant part in their food culture. One of the most popular Roman sauces, garum, was made from fermented fish in a brine sauce, and this sauce was used on everything and made salt become an important, and expensive

This is where the focus of the book goes back to the science of salt. It was previously mentioned in part two, but only briefly. Kurlansky talks about the discovery of the chemical formula of salt and with this talks about the different types of salt. After this he explains the arrival of chemistry and the history it. Within the history of salt, ties in the people who discovered it and figured it out. After explaining the history, Kurlansky begins to talk about the creations that were beginning to pop up, such as soda. As the industrial revolution occurred, the salt industry was in decline due to the invention of refrigeration. Kurlansky then begins to explain British salt in the industrial age, like the salt works, and the environmental effect it had on the modern