Homer called it a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. As Mark Kurlansky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Kurlansky and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Kurlansky) so brilliantly relates here, salt has shaped civilisation from the beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of mankind. Wars have been fought over salt and, while salt taxes secured empires across Europe and Asia, they have also inspired revolution – Gandhi’s salt march in 1930 began the overthrow of British rule in India. From the rural Sichuan province where the last home-made soya sauce is produced to the Cheshire brine springs that supplied salt around the globe, Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of world history, a multi-layered masterpiece that blends political, commercial, scientific, religious and culinary records into a rich and memorable tale.
Available in paperback at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0099281996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389721051&sr=8-1&keywords=salt+history
ISBN 978-0099281993
Mark Kurlansky