It's hard to believe that anyone could write an interesting and informative book detailing the life and history of the cod fish, or more to the point, that it could hold your interest, but that's exactly what Mark Kurlansky has done. His fascinating and engaging narrative, based on his adult book, Cod: A Biography Of The Fish That Changed The World, explores this once plentiful fish's place in history, from the Vikings, Basques, and European explorers, to Colonial America, the slave trade, American Revolution, and the technological inventions of the twentieth century that changed fishing and processing forever. Written in an easy to read, conversational style, Mr Kurlansky's intriguing story is part biology, part history, part sociology, and is chock full of interesting fun facts, trivia, humorous anecdotes, maps, recipes, and a marvelous time line that runs through the entire book and puts all this information in perspective. S.D. Schindler's bright, bold, and charming artwork is clever and entertaining, and kids will enjoy poring over the busy illustrations, and finding all the wonderful, special details. Perfect for youngsters 8 and older, The Cod's Tale takes you on a whirlwind adventure, and a very unique thousand year journey with a most unromantic, though endearing fish. This is non-fiction for kids at its very best, and a book that definitely shouldn't be missed.

Truth is stranger than fiction. Not always. When penned by Mark Kurlansky both are equally extraordinary. Not satisfied with being a Caribbean reporter for the Chicago Tribune, he became a successful non-fiction writer (COD and THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD). Now, with THE WHITE MAN IN THE TREE, it's fiction and very obvious that he is equally at ease in the imagination, and also very much at home in the Caribbean.

THE WHITE MAN IN A TREE is a novella and collection of other witty - sometimes wickedly so - short stories; all about life in the Caribbean, principally Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and French Guiana. What makes the book so enjoyable - besides Kurlansky's easy prose and comfort with the vernacular - is how he tackles the sociologically complex and serious issues that arise in such a potent admixture of people, places and cultures. Miscegnation is frought with portents of political correctness; rather than being shied away, Mr Kurlansky uses it as the theme to explore the misunderstandings and mistakes that are the common denominator of the humanly rich and diverse Caribbean.

For anyone who has lived in the area the tales will ring true. The complexity of motives and resulting eccentricity of behaviour that seems so weird to visitors is perfectly captured and explained, with a locals' shrug of the shoulders by Mr Kurlansky. Underlying all is the constant rhythm of the Caribbean sense of humor, which Mr Kurlansky has in abundance and with which he writes with abandon.

Misunderstandings and misjudgements aside, a sense of play is the one thing in common in the Caribbean; a necessary ingredient for living there and required of anybody who wishes to understand the region.

A friend gave me a copy of Mark Kurlansky's THE WHITE MAN IN THE TREE while I was planning a trip to the Caribbean. Get this book. It's guaranteed to double your travel pleasure wherever you go and whether or not you leave your armchair. You'll come away from Kurlansky's delicious romp knowing yourself and your world better. And that cast of characters! This book will remind you of Graham Greene. Kurlansky sees intently, like the visual artist he is, & forgets nothing, like the journalist he is. The combo makes for some wonderfully memorable writing.

I had approached Mark Kurlansky's White Man in a Tree, a book of short stories by a white Jewish man about non-whites in the Caribbean, cautiously if not with trepidation. Could a white man write appropriately about Caribbean culture? Could I read this book without feeling terribly uncomfortable? Could this journalist write engaging fiction? A fact that complicated things even further, and that should be revealed in all candor to readers of this review, is that Mark Kurlansky is married to my cousin. Being a fairly critical reader, I did not want to have to conceal either my dislike, boredom, or both, to my cousin and her husband. What a wonderful surprise! I finished White Man in about four days; reading it on the subway going to and from work, in the restroom, while lying in bed late into the night. In other words, I opened it up whenever I had a free moment. When I was finished, I wanted nothing else but to sit Mark down and cross-examine him about how he came to write each of the stories--in other words, to get the stories behind the stories. The stories are all engaging, educational, moving, and beautifully written. I sometimes felt they had qualities of Sholem Aleichem, sometimes Marquez. Each story takes place on a different island, and draws the reader in almost immediately. One of my favorites, The Unclean, is about a new rabbi in a Caribbean Jewish community who discovers that even the seemingly most observant members of his congregation are oblivious to Jewish dietary laws and eat shellfish with impunity. As a result, the rabbi engages the non-Jewish islanders in his quest to bring kosher meat to his congregation. In sum, I loved this book and have been recommending it to everyone I know.

Mark Kurlansky manages to squeeze quite a bit of information into this rather short book, and yet it doesn't feel like he left anything out. It is truly amazing what an impact cod has had on our world. What at first seems to be a fairly insignificant little fish with an unappetizing name, is shown to be the entire driving force of the economy of several different nations and communities. Mark explains the importance of cod to the world economy, why wars have been fought directly and indirectly over cod, how the cod trade not only supported but also perpetuated the slave trade, and the ramifications of greedily over-fishing. This book is highly recommended for anyone who has any kind of interest in where their food came from, even if they've never eaten cod before. Many things about the cod industry have parallels in other food insustries, such as beef, pork, and poultry production.

In many ways, the story of `Cod' is the story of America. In this beautifully written little essay, Mark Kurlansky explains how the early settlement and wealth of America revolved around this fish. But this book is no dry academic fare; rather, it is full with curiousities and odd bits of history and yes recipes. Kurlansky, a fellow freemason of the sea, does a magic trick. He makes the book highly accessible, informative, and useful (recipes). Given that we have fished it to commercial extinction, it is a vital read for anyone concerned with our relation to Nature.

I highly recommend it if you are taking holidays anywhere in New England, the Martimes, Portugal, Spain, the southwest coast of England or my place - Newfoundland.

I gave it to my father, who is a commercial fisherman, and he really liked it: "Felt like reading about yourself." Enough said.

A terrific book! I had no idea that cod have played such a large role in the economic and social history of the western world. Tracing their story creates a spectacular cross-section of European and North American history. It's one of those books (rather like James Burke's Connections) that helps the reader figure out why things are the way they are, and understand the links between seemingly disparate elements of society and history. I often give my books away after reading them, but there's no way I'm parting with this one.

By a lucky accident, I read Cod right after reading Kipling's Captains Courageous, which is set on a cod trawler working the Grand Banks in the 1890s. The two books reinforce each other -- one the historical summary, the other the detailed exploration of the daily life of those involved. A great combination.

Mark Kurlansky has written a witty and erudite history of mankind's love affair with salt. From Lake Yuncheng 8,000 years ago in what is now modern-day China to the fine granular perfection of a box of Morton's, Kurlansky uses salt as a lens through which to view the development of technology and nations. He ends the book with the not un-ironic recognition of what took eighty centuries to achieve -- abundant, perfect white salt -- is now common, cheap and disdained.

This is an informal and amusing book, filled with what seems solid research and clear thinking. Half history and half food writing, Kurlansky visits Portugese cod-fishing fleets and Roman salt mines, ancient Asian saltworks and Edmund McIlhenny's salt island in New Iberia Parish, Louisiana. He uses the repeated cycles of history to visit certain recurring themes: a human's need for salt making them vulnerable to taxation, and thence rebellion, as well as the growth of technologies, particularly drilling technologies, spurred by the need for, and want of, salt.

Today, with blast freezers, refrigerated truck lines and jets that can move fresh seafood around the world, we have forgotten just how critical salt once was. Nowadays we can tinker with our salt intake and question its affect on health, but for men and women laboring under the sun in salt-poor regions, it was life itself. Kurlansky remninds us of these things, and how the humble white crystal has been part of our development as a civilization.

Salt is a multidisciplinary historical look at salt, a material closely tied to civilization. As its title claims, it is a history of the world from the perspective of salt. The book is hard to put down with attention grabbing chapters such as 'Salt's Salad Days,' 'The Leaving of Liverpool,' 'The Odium of Sodium,' 'Big salt, Little Salt' and 'The War Between the Salts.' Since the author has received an award for excellence in food writing, it should come as no surprise that the text contains its share of historical recipes.
In the course of the book we are introduced to an astonishing range of cultures and visit many areas where salt has been found and harvested. From Egypt to China, Rome and the Celts, India, Africa and America, the story moves back and forth, skipping between time periods and cultures. The reader is assisted in the journey by well-drawn maps. I especially enjoyed learning about the many ways salt has been harvested, from the sea, evaporating brines or mining rock salt. I also was intrigued by the influence of salt on fields diverse as economics, taxes, politics and technology. For example, we learn about how Gandhi and Indian independence got its start in rebellion against oppressive salt taxes leveled on the Indians so that British salt makers would have a market for their surplus salt.
In the book we meet salt-connected people like Li Bing, governor of what is now Sichuan in 250 B.C.E. and a hydraulic engineering genius. Besides building the world's first large scale dam for flood control and irrigation, and opening up central China for widespread agriculture, Li Bing was the first to drill for salt brine. The author shows how this naturally led to our geologic understanding of salt domes and eventually how to drill for oil in such domes. At this time the Chinese became the first to tax salt and attempt to fix its price, something hard to do with such a cheap and readily available material.
It is in his slant towards food that the author is most comfortable, talking about the many ways salt and food intersect. We and introduced to salt and food preservation, spices and flavorings, sour kraut and salted meat, fish and fishing, even the harvesting and production of caviar. There are two chapters on Avery Island in Louisiana, the first on salt mining by the Avery family which supplied much of the Confederacy's salt, the second on Edmund McIlhenny combining two products of the island ' hot chili peppers and salt ' to make Tabasco sauce.
The book appears to randomly skip around between cultures and time periods, visiting China and America several times. It also ignores any time period later than mid twentieth century and does little with modern, nonfood uses of salt. The author gives no citations or footnotes for his many quotes or facts, relying instead on a fairly extensive bibliography including books and a few articles. While he talks about the science of salt in parts of a few chapters, I would have liked to learn more. He does fairly well with the changes in technology involved with salt. While I enjoyed reading the book it left me with many historical and scientific questions unanswered. Its real strength is in describing the historical relationship between salt and food. I found it pleasant to read.

Salt" takes the reader through thousands of years of human cultural and scientific development, all-the-while making it interesting and accessible. The common character throughout is ordinary table salt, which up until 100 years ago, played a far more important role in human society and economics. Through the use of this everyday material, Kurlansky takes us on a tour that from ancient China and Rome, to Britain's rule of India, into the slave operated salt mines of Europe, down to Avery Island during the American Civil War (and the creation of Tabasco Sauce); all with a focus on the cuisines of those places and times. A long book that I was sorry to finish.

A very poorly written muddle of a confused account of random events of Caribbean history and social issues. The Author continually seems to get confused between what is the indigenous population and what is the current population of the Caribbean islands. He refers to the resistance of the indigenous population and then goes on to discuss a slave rebellion a century later as if they were all one and the same. In one section he describes the peaceful, docile natives fighting fiercely (a contradiction of terms in itself) but fails to inform the reader that the Arawaks and the Caribs were two entirely different peoples living in the Caribbean. While the Arawaks were indeed peaceful and docile the Caribs were anything but! He also seems to miss the point that the Caribs were in the midst of their own very bloody conquest of the Caribbean when the Spanish arrived on the scene.
He creates a confusing picture of what are issues and what were issues. He freely wanders through the centuries leaving the reader wondering whether he is addressing today's issues or one's of long ago. The only theme of connectivity is the Caribbean. His statistics are more self-serving than objective.
If you are looking for a book of jumbled social issues that provides no useful information on the Caribbean then I heartily recommend this book.

This is not your scholarly tome, an arid recitation of events and facts. For such a fascinating part of the world, the Caribbean has generated very few readable histories that keep a reader's interest. Kurlansky includes a modicum of facts, but the real power of this book is the sweep, and the themes that tie different islands and eras together. I would recommend this book without hesitation to anyone who wants to know something about the Caribbean - or even someone just looking for an entertaining piece of non-fiction. Unlike the single grumpy reviewer, I would have no hesitation using this book in an introductory class on Caribbean culture.

Kurlansky illuminates inquisitive minds with a refreshing look at the Caribbean. Delving beyond the surface of the islands, he captures very real portraits of the people and highlights their culture, problems, triumphs and humanity. Kurlansky treats all of the islands from Cuba to Trinidad with intellectual sensibility and equality, which contrasts several other authors myopic focus on a few selected islands and exclusion of subtle cultural points. For those people looking for information about the cultural similarities and differences of the Caribbean people and the challenges they face now and in the future, Kurlansky's "A Continent of Islands: Searching for the Caribbean Destiny" is an excellent choice. It is an enlightning book for Caribbeans and curious people, alike.

When Kurlansky, the author, describes the surviving Polish Jews, he does so with a less anti-Polish bias than many other writers on this topic. When discussing the so-called Kielce Pogrom, for example, Kurlansky recognizes the fact that this was no spontaneous anti-Jewish riot, but was orchestrated by the Communists (who were being forcibly imposed upon Poland at this time on the heels of the Soviet Army). Unfortunately, Kurlansky also uncritically repeats some stereotypic reactions to historical events. When considering the fact that Jewish involvement in Communism had provoked anti-Semitic feelings among many Poles, Kurlansky gives the standard line about this Jewish-Soviet collaboration being necessary to save Jews from the Nazis. But this is contrary to facts: To begin with, extensive Jewish involvement in Communism had long predated the origin of the Nazis, and continued long after their defeat. Moreover, in 1939, the genocidal intentions of the Nazis were not taken seriously. In fact, most Jews saw the Germans as a civilized people, and welcomed them as such.

More than typing a review , I want to deeply congratulate the author. I am 40 and it is the best book in the subject I have ever read. Eventhough English is not my native language I can feel the passion the writter used in describing us a real life movie in written words I should say BRAVO for his book.... ...I wish I can get in contact with the author and ask thousands of questions.......

Yes, Kurlansky is worth his salt as a writer, researcher and uncoverer of unknown facts about odd subjects. As he did with his previous non fiction books he has woven strands of information into an interesting tapestry, equal parts - enthralling history lesson and cultural voyage. The only problem is - at 450 pages and 26 chapters, with numerous visits to different cultures, countries, eras and rulers in an attempt to cover as many of the 14,000 uses that salt is known for - finishing SALT: A WORLD HISTORY leaves you in a brine of facts, but also very thirsty for a unifying theme or story and a more memorable read.

Certainly my knowledge of historical trivia is now seasoned with tidbits such as: the Anglo-Saxon word for saltworks being 'wich' means that places such as Norwich, Greenwich, etc, in England were once ancient salt mines; Ghandi's independence movement in India began with his defying the British salt laws, and the French levied taxes on salt until as recently as 1946.

A common theme in Kurlansky's books is that food is seen as a topic of historical interest. Here we learn about the role salt played in preserving cod, whale, ham, herring, caviar, pastrami, salami and sausage, and as it was with COD and THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD this book is sprinkled throughout with recipes.

Salt is certainly an interesting subject; cultural history buffs will love this book and Kurlansky still has a humorous, easy, and very readable writing style; it's just that he probably could have salted away some of the facts without us missing much and he should have developed a flowing theme rather than one that was so saltatory.

Mark Kurlansky has done it again! Never will you look at the ordinary salt shaker in quite the same way. Not only does he give a wonderful overview of how salt has changed the world and been a war commodity, he also tells charming tales of folklore and legend. I particularly love the story of a princess who tells her father the king that she loves him like salt.....read the book to get the rest of the story.

Not just for foodies, this is an entertaining book on the fascinating history of the not so ordinary substance we all take for granted. Highly recommended.

SALT follows in the tradition of COD and THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD in bringing the history of peoples and things to life. Kurlansky takes SALT, the commodity that has defined civilizations, travels, and commerce for centuries as his cornerstone, and his writing flows from there. Fascinating, insightful, and a pleasure to read.
It's a big book, a big idea, and a great read that spans centuries of fascinating history, peoples, and events. Bravo!

This could have been a very nice book indeed, and so I hoped having throughly enjoyed "Cod" While the author suceeds in giving a sense of basque history and culture (specially good are chapters on fishing, whaling and food), the book is seriously spoilt by its badly substantiated political intent. I doubt not that the writer has as good a knowledge of the basque country as the next foreigner, and his unaccuracy just goes to show how complex the basque situation is. As someone who was born, bred and grown in the Basque Country (not a "basque" as I have no basque name and don't speak the language) I was dismayed at some of the affirmations of the book and some of the serious omissions, as mentioned by other readers. I love basque history and culture, and above all I love basque people. They deserve better than this. It is evident that this book was writen with love too. But the result is simply wrong: it glorifies the actions of a bunch of cruel assassins whom are hated by the majority of the basques. A very irresponsible thing to do.

In my search for a better understanding of the Basques, their place in European history and the reasons for the continuing conflict in their region today, I picked up Mark Kurlansky's book. THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD is extremely well-written in modern journalistic style. That is, nothing is pursued to the bitter end, certainly, nor, sometimes, is it pursued to a logical conclusion. Subjects are touched upon, suddenly turned into something else, or dropped. Objectivity is not a high priority, but love of subject finds a secure place. These qualities may not be praiseworthy, academically, but do make for enjoyment. Any historical event can be the trigger for a recipe, an odd but pleasant characteristic of the book, which is thus full of interesting recipes, from 'hare with walnut and chocolate', to 'Salmí de paloma' (a pigeon dish), to 'alubias de Tolosa' (beans). I found loads of fascinating interludes, for example, the description of Basque whaling and fishing expeditions and techniques; the discussion of the intellectual roots of Basque nationalism; how to make pelota balls; and the course of the Spanish Civil War in the Basque country. Kurlansky has the ability to discuss issues without getting bogged down. I have seldom met clearer (but perhaps they were incomplete) passages on the Carlist Wars that ravaged Spain for much of the 19th century. Rather than be an organized history in the usual sense, THE BASQUE HISTORY....... is a kind of "Whole Earth Catalogue" of Basqueness, of Euskal Herria. I liked it. It is not a work for serious scholars, but it certainly can be a jumping off place. It would be an overly serious person indeed who did not find Kurlansky's work charming. I can easily recommend this book to anyone who would like to read about a seldom-discussed people; a distinct European ethnic group with a unique language who have occupied the same lands for thousands of years.

Sometimes I felt that the author threw in "facts" without checking. For example, on page 138 he talks about the Basque word "jauntxo" and says it has come into English as "honcho". This word entered American English after WW II because it was the Japanese word for "superior officer" and was used to ask prisoners who commanded them. Similarly on page 293, Kurlansky claims that "cipayo", used as an epithet to describe local Basque police, was borrowed from a pejorative word used by Indian nationalists to describe Indian police who worked for the British. The word "sipahi" is certainly Hindi/Urdu, but it merely means 'soldier' or 'constable' and doesn't have any pejorative meaning.

A large section of the book discusses the Basques during Franco's long, oppressive regime, and during its aftermath with the entrance of Spain into Europe, and the rise of Basque terrorism in the struggle to maintain identity and/or become independent. While I found some of this rather diffuse, THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD is the only book I know which can give the reader, unfamiliar with the events of 1970-2000, a background to the mayhem from a Basque (nationalist)point of view. For the most part, the author has done his homework, interviewed many interesting people, and compiled his information in a pleasing way.

Mark Kurlansky, author of 'The Basque History of the World' (Jonathan Cape; 1999) presents one of the most accomplished books on Basque history ever written in English. Kurlansky blends human stories with cultural, political and culinary history. He, like many other authors is attracted by the challenge of the survival of this small country throughout thousands of years.
Kurlansky reveals a different point of view on the Basque people, far from the stereotypes imposed by many modern journalists. The author, as a journalist himself, highlights the Basque's outstanding impact on Europe's historical evolution. "No word less describes Basques than the term separatist...Considering how small a group the Basques are, they have made remarkable contributions to world history", Kurlansky adds.
The modern Basque Country represents a human group constituted by hardly three million people lost in the swarms of the great human
crowds.
A significant fact of the Basque Country is the tenacity for the historical survival, its touch of distinction for the cultural creation, and its collective memory for the development of a social identity. While the world has entered into the Third Millennium, over 650,000 people are speaking a language, Euskera, whose roots can be found in the Stone Age (6,000BC). The Basque sociologist Ruiz de Olabuenaga argues that "something that had defined and is still defining men and women of the Basque society is the conviction that we ourselves must create our own future and that the excellence of the history of this country can be lost. We are a small country but solid, intense, passionate between the unconditional fidelity to our tradition and the
maximum compromise to the ambiguity of the future".
Kurlansky summarizes the aspiration of the Basque people for such historical survival in the final sentence of his book: 'Garean gareana legez' - 'Let us be what we are' - (from Esteban de Garibay, Basque Historian, XVIthC).
P. J. Oiarzabal, Historian
Reno, Nevada, September 2001

I second the notions of the other reviewers who feel this collection sits heavy on the stomach of the mind (so to speak). Too much bland starch of info, too few servings spiced with literary feel, emotion, significance.

In no fewer than 234 entries (in 30 chapters), I found intensity of the writer producing intensity in me, only in these five items:

1. Wechsberg's report on the social-gastronomic intricacies of a boiled beef restaurant in earlier Vienna. Such fussing! Such snobbery. But, such expertise!

2. Grigson on English food. Sad but incisive critique of her nation's failings--at that time.

3. E. M. Forster on ditto--cameo sketch of a perfectly awful breakfast on a train is a gem.

4. Pelligrini on "the abundance of America"--heartfelt hymn to ham and eggs and more, with feeling.

5. Curnonsky on the political spectrum of gourmets, from far right (starched traditional), right, center, left, and far left (exotic ingredients and more). A classic truth perhaps.

Mere information is basic nourishment perhaps; literary quality is "finer cuisine" probably...?

For food literati greedy for the ample feast Choice Cuts offers in its 452 pages, two outcomes may arise. 1 - The charming collection of food history, recipes, and eloquent opinions is enough to satisfy the reader in a nightly-nibbling sort of way (you really will have to take it chapter by chapter). M.F.K. Fisher is predominantly laced throughout the other narratives and her presence alone warrants a read through as a daily reminder of the pleasures we could encounter everyday...

or

2 - Every night after you put down the book, however charming the prose or hindsight-humor of ancient observations on cabbage you'll sit and wonder why it's subtitled: "A Savory Selection of Food Writing from Around the World..."

Apart from a brief recipe for Baghdad Onion & Eggs and Confucian musings on the effects of food, the focus is acutely European/Western and if my georgraphy knowledge serves me correctly, there's still alot of the world left terribly underrepresented in the collection...

That is to say, perhaps other cultures didn't devote as much thought to the realm of food, agriculture, and health, etc. Or perhaps such writing never survived, never existed, was never bothered to be translated/researched properly. Judging, however, from the infinite number of dishes that manage to delight the palate whether or not served in the dilapidated charm of a tiny french restaurant, the book is a little lop-sided.

But still, for greedy ones like me, a good leisure read.

CHOICE CUTS
Mark Kurlansky, Editor
ISBN 0-345-45710-2

This book, a collection of writing about food, drags somewhat from the burden of including too much arcane material, for example Pliny the Elder's note on onions from the first century. Elsewhere, another chapter devotes too many words to the difference between a gourmet and a gourmand, which is perhaps not as critical to the reader as to the editor.

There are some excellent pieces in this book however. Among the best are the articles by M. F. K. Fisher, who was a food writer, but felt that food, security, and love are entwined. She also wrote very well. Her story about a last meal at a favorite restaurant before leaving France in 1932 is warm and witty. Fisher almost did not get the last meal because a waiter failed to recognize her and her husband. He spotted her precious accordion she was carrying on to the ship, assumed that they were street musicians, and showed them the door. In another article, Fisher writes about bachelors' cooking, "few of them under seventy-nine will bother to produce a good meal unless it is for a pretty woman."

Another fine piece by Jeremy Wechsberg about a restaurant in Vienna before the war, where the boiled beef specialties required a customer to have a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of a steer, is one of my favorites. The restaurant kept herds of cattle, fed with molasses and sugar beet mash to supply its pampered customers. The story, written in 1948, reflects a past lifestyle to which few of us could relate. It was said that Austrian poets lavished rhymed praise upon the delicacies they consumed at "Meissl & Schadn".

The George Orwell article about cooks and waiters in Paris is the writer at his best. The waiters made more than the cooks, and the waiters had the mentality of snobs. A shorter piece about English food is equally good. In it, Orwell offers, "England is a very good country when you are not poor." I also admired John Steinbeck's article about hunger in California during the depression. Steinbeck wrote that, when children starved, the coroners wrote "malnutrition" on the death certificate because is sounded better "when a thin child is dead in a tent".

This book offers a number of satisfying entrees, even for those whose main interests are other than food. However, one has to get through too many bland side dishes between them.