Salt: A World History

In his sixth nonfiction piece, Mark Kurlansky examines salt, a basic household object with a fascinating past. Since salt is the only rock humans consume, it has molded society from the very beginning. The history of salt is a brilliant, often unexpected chapter in human history. Salt, a material so precious it was used as money, has affected the founding of towns and trade routes, incited and funded wars, preserved empires, and sparked revolutions.