Mark Kurlansky's, Salt: A World History

As important as salt is, and as much as we all use it constantly, it's not something I thought much about. I knew there were salt mines, I knew iodine was added to salt, and beyond that, I never gave it much thought. It is, however, critically important to both animal life and human history, has fascinating chemical and physical properties, encompasses more than just sodium chloride, and has contributed to a staggering variety of cuisine, words, and city names. There is plenty to write a history about, and I wish Kurlansky had written one.

This book is, alas, mistitled. A better title would be Salt: A Collection of Historical Anecdotes. It is certainly enough to wet one's appetite; it's full of interesting tidbits and odd corners of history, plus a few not so odd corners of history that one may be embarrassed not to have already known (mine was the connection between salt and Gandhi in India). It tells stories about salt manufacture, paints brief portraits of life in several salt towns, discusses the rise of salt trading empires, and mentions several unique landmarks relating to salt. Unfortunately, it mostly fails to put any of this in any sort of broader context, and several topics (most notably the interesting chemistry of salt and the more recent developments in processing techniques) are ignored almost completely. If this had been a bad or uninteresting book, it wouldn't have been as frustrating. As is, I came away knowing quite a bit more about the history of salt and feeling even less satisfied with what I know.

The primary flaw is a lack of context. Each section of the book is presented nearly in isolation, and apart from off-hand comments about some source of salt mentioned previously or some salt-making technique ...