Salt: A World History

Why I'd hand it to you

Mark Kurlansky takes something on every table and shows how it shaped history: preserving food, funding empires, sparking wars and taxes, all the way to Gandhi's Salt March. He moves from ancient China to Rome to the fisheries of Europe, with odd facts and old recipes along the way. It is the kind of book that changes how you look at ordinary things. That said, it isn't a tight narrative. It wanders, and long stretches feel like a list of salt-related facts across centuries, which can wear on readers who want a story. Dip in and out, and it is a lot of fun.

— Matt Jordan