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Cod : A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World

Cod : A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World

Cod : A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World Paperback - 1999

by Mark Kurlansky

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Paperback. Very Good.
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Details

  • Title Cod : A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
  • Author Mark Kurlansky
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Condition Used - Very good
  • Pages 294
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Vintage/Ebury (a Division of Random, London
  • Publication date May 6, 1999
  • Bookseller's Inventory # GOR001223391
  • ISBN 9780099268703 / 0099268701
  • Weight 0.58 lbs (0.26 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.8 x 5.08 x 0.64 in (19.81 x 12.90 x 1.63 cm)
  • Reading level 1200
  • Category Animals
  • Dewey Decimal Code 641.392
  • Quantity available 41

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Summary

A delightful romp through history with all its economic forces laid bare, Cod is the biography of a single species of fish, but it may as well be a world history with this humble fish as its recurring main character. Cod, it turns out, is the reason Europeans set sail across the Atlantic, and it is the only reason they could. What did the Vikings eat in icy Greenland and on the five expeditions to America recorded in the Icelandic sagas? Cod, frozen and dried in the frosty air, then broken into pieces and eaten like hardtack. What was the staple of the medieval diet? Cod again, sold salted by the Basques, an enigmatic people with a mysterious, unlimited supply of cod. As we make our way through the centuries of cod history, we also find a delicious legacy of recipes, and the tragic story of environmental failure, of depleted fishing stocks where once their numbers were legendary. In this lovely, thoughtful history, Mark Kurlansky ponders the question: Is the fish that changed the world forever changed by the world's folly?

Reader reviews for Cod : A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World

From the publisher

'Who would ever think that a book on cod would make a compulsive read? And yet this is precisely what Kurlansky has done' Express on Sunday

The Cod. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been triggered by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious that gold. This book spans 1,000 years and four continents. From the Vikings to Clarence Birdseye, Mark Kurlansky introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs and fisherman, whose lives have been interwoven with this prolific fish. He chronicles the cod wars of the 16th and 20th centuries. He blends in recipes and lore from the Middle Ages to the present. In a story that brings world history and human passions into captivating focus, he shows how the most profitable fish in history is today faced with extinction.

First line

A medieval fisherman is said to have hauled up a three-foot-long cod, which was common enough at the time.
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