Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World

Rating:
Summary: Good book. About cod.
Review: Hmmm... not sure I can explain why I wanted to read this book. I mean, its about cod. A fish. And a rather unimpressive-looking one at that. I don't even know where or when I heard about this book, but I did sometime, at someplace, and whatever it was I heard really made me want to read it. I do know that the American right to the cod fisheries of the Grand Banks was an important part of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution. So maybe that's why I picked it up. To be honest, I just don't know.

Verdict: Its a very good book. About cod. Honestly, it wasn't the best book I've ever read, but for Kurlansky to have held my attention for 220+ pages on the subject of a fish is a fairly remarkable feat.

The cod fish seems to have had a fin in all sorts of historical events. According to Kurlansky, one of the deciding factors in the Pilgrims having chosen Massachusetts as their landing spot is because they envisioned that there would be good fishing off of an arm-shaped land formation called "Cape Cod." I would have sworn that I read somewhere that the Pilgrims first intended to land in Virginia and were blown off-course to Plymouth Bay by pure accident... but I could be mistaken. And besides, the term "Virginia" in the early 17th century could have applied to just about the entire Eastern Seaboard of North America. So either way, Kurlansky could still be right.

Another startling example of the cod-that-changed-the-world philosophy is in Iceland, which relied so heavily on the fish that it had three wars with England - actually called the "Cod Wars" - over the matter. And that was just in the last century, between 1956 and 1977. Sure, no one was killed, but a lot of mean words were thrown about and fishnets cut. God bless gentlemanly warfare.

So, in all, I give it four stars. If I gave a damn about fish I'd probably have given it five. It was a good read - filled with dozens of delish cod recipes by the way - and if nothing else, it shed some light on the serious problem of overfishing to this landlubber in particular.

Rating:
Summary: It's the little things that surprise you
Review: If I hadn't read Mark Kurlansky's Cod, I wouldn't have known the vital role cod played in the settlement of North America. If not for cod, America might have never declared its independence. Cod was an important element in the facilitation of the slave trade. All news to me until I read Cod. (Well, until I read A Cod's Tale, which led me to read the full version.)

Cod reminds us that human beings are a connected part of our ecosystem. Too often, I think we perceive some sort of separation between us and so-called "nature." We are either concerned with or disregard our impact on the rest of the system, but we overlook how that system impacts on us. Mr. Kurlansky shows the human side of the equation. and how a lack of concern for the totality of our environment will eventually come back and bite us in the rear. We see how the reduction of the cod population has impacted on the world's fishing industry, and, more importantly, on the individuals who make up that industry.

Cod is an extremely well-done history book, detailed and easy to read. More importantly, it is clearly relevant to contemporary readers, demonstrating how the cycle of cause-and-effect continues to this day.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Fish Story!
Review: A book about a fish? Who knew?

I had no idea how BIG a role the simple cod played in literally reshaping the globe. I don't ever remember hearing this point in grammar school history class.

Kurlansky has quite the knack for telling a history. I have previously read "Basque History of the World". Excellent and very interesting as well.

Now I need to pick up the new "Salt" book by the same author.

Rating:
Summary: I hate fish, but I loved this book
Review: This book was excellent. Kurlansky has taken a modest topic and followed it into all aspects of its existence and history. It is not too often that you read a book that changes the way you think about something you hate. The storytelling in this book was absolutely first rate, as it wove its tale of a fish that allowed colonization of distant places, and as a resource that people continue to battle over today. I could have done without all of the recipes, but they do add a sense of urgency to the necessity of saving our oceans for the fish, and not overusing our resources.

Thank you Mr. Kurlansky, and I look forward to your future efforts.

Rating:
Summary: So help me Cod...
Review: Kurlansky does a wonderful job of showing how a seemingly insignificant fish is intertwined with our history, our culture, and our future. I recommend this extremely endearing book to anyone, but especially to those who have an interest in history, ecology, or fishing. Kurlansky has created a classic of non-fiction as profound as Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring", but much more entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: My what big fish you have.
Review: Cool book. Very readable. Cod takes a look at exploration of the New World from a different and refreshing perspective- fish as prime motivation for exploration/settlement/ecomomic well being.
A quick read that history buffs will enjoy. I never really understood the process of fish preservation by drying and/or salting. Now I do and it is very interesting (believe it or not).

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable book - For history buffs a must read
Review: A sincerely interesting book about the role this fish has played over the course of history. A wonderful tie in to American history (Pilgrims landing in Plymouth, and John Adams!) A lite easy read, perfect for the summer.

Rating:
Summary: "Swims with its mouth open and swallows whatever will fit"
Review: That description of the cod by Mark Kurlansky is not exactly a ringing endorsement; still it's better than what is said of us. Man is "an open-mouthed species even greedier than cod." COD goes on to prove this point by telling the history of this fish. The author looks at the best days of the cod fishing industry - between the 16th and 18th centuries when 60% of all fish eaten in Europe was cod - to the current situation where fishing ports such as Gloucester, Mass., are nothing near what they used to be. Indeed by the time of the Revolution, "in the minds of its most hard line revolutionaries, the New England radicals", the cod-fishing industry, according to Mr Kurlansky, had made the Revolution as much about making money as it was about political freedom. He goes on to say that "one of the greatest obstacles to restoring cod stocks off of Newfoundland is an almost pathological collective denial of what has happened."

The history goes back even further, to the f!irst century AD when the Vikings set sail from Norway through Iceland, to Greenland, Canada, and perhaps New England. It's not a coincidence that this is the exact range of cod, nor is it surprising that after the Vikings, the Basques became well known as cod fishers. We see the beginnings of Mr Kurlansky's admiration for these intrepid sailors from the Iberian peninsula; an interest that led him to write THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

It's only fitting that such a quirky fish would produce historical anomalies such as the fact that in one of the places named for it - Cape Cod - nowadays you will be hard pressed to find any sign of its past. Also reconcile how cod, which, unlike man has never traveled to the Caribbean, has nevertheless become the main part of Jamaica's delicious national dish - ackee and saltfish. Speaking of food; Mr Kurlansky, in making his book as odd as cod, and as interesting as its history, throws in some recipes that you can try for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: In Cod We Trust!
Review: The marvel of Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World is that anyone could write a book this interesting about a subject so lackluster- a fish so boring that it does not even struggle when it is caught, instead allowing the fisherman to haul it up without a fight. Somehow Mark Kurlansky was able to make the codfish interesting enough that I continually drive my co-workers insane, insisting that they should read this book. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been spurred by it, national diets have been founded on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it. The lowly cod really is the fish that changed the world. This book is a sober reminder of the impact of man on the environment, but it also a enjoyable and readable book filled with curious cod tidbits and a historical cross-section of odd cod recipes. In the same vein as The Perfect Storm or Longitude, this book is more entertaining than either of those maritime titles, although unlikely to be made into a movie starring George Clooney. If seeing the title Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World made you crack a smile, then you should read this book and tell your friends about it, so that they too can wonder if you're just making it up.

Rating:
Summary: A really different take on history
Review: I really enjoyed reading this interesting history that takes a different approach to history - how a fish can affect human history! Very well written - I've begun interesting my friends in it!