Salt: Grain of life, by Pierre Laszlo, Columbia University Press,
$22.95, 拢15.95 ISBN 0231121989
WHITE gold: this is how salt was seen, once. In fact, it鈥檚 only since the end
of the 19th century鈥攚hen it became cheap and widely available鈥攖hat
sodium chloride鈥檚 status has plummeted. Pierre Laszlo鈥檚 Salt takes us through
the astonishing history of this substance with lightness as well as
learning.
Laszlo reveals how salt rapidly became a coveted commodity soon after its
discovery. First valued as a preservative for food, particularly fish, it
gradually gained in importance as a spice, opening up long, sometimes
adventurous trade routes, then served as currency and a subject for lucrative
taxes. Near our own times it triggered widespread rebellion (Gandhi and the salt
tax), and at the same time formed the raw material for chemicals industries.
It鈥檚 so tightly interwoven with human history that a random trawl through the
book will throw up the nervous system, vinyl floors and naval blockades.
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It鈥檚 pretty mind-boggling stuff, but Laszlo handles it deftly. He is
something of an etymologist as well as a chemist, historian and scientist, and
so is also interested in the traces of salt in everyday language. English, of
course, is sprinkled with them鈥斺�漷aken with a pinch of salt鈥�, 鈥渟alt of the
earth鈥�, 鈥渆arning a salary鈥� and so on. These observations are fascinating.
Laszlo鈥檚 style is that of a knowledgeable uncle talking pleasantly and
filling a half hour or so with useful facts and anecdotes. Be warned, though:
this is not a book to swallow whole. Best read it in instalments to get the full
value, and prevent that salt-glazed feeling.