Salt

Product Description

For the sake of salt, Rome created a system of remuneration (from which we get the word salary), nomads domesticated the camel, the Low Countries revolted against their Spanish oppressors, & Gandhi marched against the tyranny of the British. Through the ages, salt has conferred status, preserved foods, & mingled in the blood, sweat, & tears of humanity. Today, chefs of haute cuisine covet it in its most exotic forms -- underground salt deposits, Hawaiian black lava salt, glittery African crystals, & pink Peruvian salt from the sea carried in bricks on the backs of llamas. From proverbs to technical arguments, from anecdotes to examples of folklore, chemist & philosopher Pierre Laszlo takes us through the kingdom of white gold. With enthusiasm & freshness (Le Monde) he mixes literary analysis, history, anthropology, biology, physics, economics, art history, political science, chemistry, ethnology, & linguistics to create a full body of knowledge about the everyday substance that rocked the world & brings zest to the ordinary. Laszlo explains the history behind Morton Salt's slogan When it rains, it pours! & looks into the plight of the salt miner, as well as spectroscopy & nuclear magnetic resonance. Salt is a tour de force about a chemical compound that is one of the very foundations of civilization.