Salt by Pierre Laszlo
Through the ages, salt has conferred status, preserved foods, and mingled in the blood, sweat, and tears of humanity. Mixing literary analysis, history, biology, physics, economics, art history, political science, chemistry, and linguistics, this book talks about the everyday substance that rocked the world and brings zest to the ordinary.
Rich in fact and analysis..takes the seemingly trivial subject of salt and implies that it is not merely an essential element of life but that it is perhaps the veritable motor of human history. Gastronomica Offers a rich pickle barrel of facts and anecdotes about salt. London Review of Books Readers will never again think of salt... in the same simple way. The Washington Post Book World A breathless read... because of the suprising appeal and importance of the subject itself. Houston Chronicle History, chemistry, physics, economics, anthropology, technology... linguistics, art history... and culinary arts are all explored in this wonderful, multicultural Renaissance approach to the subject of salt... Salt is not just plain, and this book is a pleasure to read. Choice A slender, impish concoction... To say this is a quirky book is like saying Rita Hayworth was an okay-looking gal... Calvinesque in many ways-filled with lightness, delightful tangents, postmodernist hijinks. The Globe and Mail A weirdly compelling blend of chemical analysis and anecdotal history. -- Teresa Weaver The Atlanta Journal-Constitution I have been darting, delightedly, from one section to another-from Salting Herring to extreme halophiles, to Spectroscopy. It is a marvellous mosaic leavened with great charm and lightness. -- Oliver Sacks The distinction between the scientific and the nonscientific blurs. One becomes astonished that every day one samples a chemical with such a rich cultural aura-which is to say the wager by the author is a success. Le Monde Takes us through the astonishing history of this substance with lightness as well as learning... [his] observations are fascinating. -- Roy Herbert NewScientist.com
Pierre Laszlo is an emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of Liege, Belgium, and the Ecole polytechnique near Paris, France. Of his many published works six have been translated into English, including Organic Reactions: Logic and Simplicity and Organic Chemistry Using Clays.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780231121989 |
| ISBN 10 | 0231121989 |
| Title | Salt |
| Author | Pierre Laszlo |
| Series | Arts And Traditions Of The Table: Perspectives On Culinary History |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Columbia University Press |
| Year published | 2001-06-27 |
| Number of pages | 256 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |