Rating: 
Summary: Un estudio ecologico-antropologico excelente
Review: Mi conocimiento del problema del bacalao (Cod) se limitaba a la descripcion ecologica del mismo, pero este libro me ha ayudado a entender un poco mejor la complejidad del problema y hasta donde esa relacion hombre-recurso dio forma a lo que es el mundo actual. Es un libro que recomiendo para el interesado en aprender acerca de la relacion que tiene el desarrollo historico del hombre y los recursos naturales. Tambien considero que es una advertencia escalofriante si extendemos esta misma idea a otros recursos. Un detalle que me encanto fueron las recetas para preparar el bacalao.
Rating: 
Summary: A Superb Book
Review: While I won't go so far as to say that this book changed my life, I will say it is one of the more interesting books I've read recently. Mark Kurlansky has taken an unusual and little thought about topic and explained it's importance in not only economic systems, but cultural and social systems as well. I always enjoy books that think outside the box, and this is one of those books.Kurlansky is at his best when he explains how cod had an effect on diverse areas such as exploration and settlement. Kurlansky shows how much of the exploration to the New World was related not only to the hope of finding a trade route to Asia, but to find the rich cod beds that Basque fishermen had been exploiting for centuries. The improvements in treating cod in salt and drying cod also allowed for early explorers to travel farther and expand their discoveries, as sailors no longer had to worry about foraging for supplies on the coast. Kurlansky also shows how early American settlements exploded in size and economic power due to the teeming cod banks off their coasts. The early Puritan settlers had a rough go of it for years until cod processing took off, then they never looked back. From Kurlansky's analysis, it could almost be said that these early settlements would never have grown so quickly without cod. Without this wonder fish, the growth of what would eventually become the United States would have been seriously retarded, at least in the northern part of the country. The second part of Kurlansky's book deals with the serious problem of fish depletion. As much as I hate to admit it, he gives a convincing argument that corporate greed coupled with nationalistic ambition and plain ignorance has seriously weakened the world supply of cod, as well as other fish. The devices modern corporations use actually argue against using the term "fishing", as they are more often harvesting fish. The use of huge trawlers with miles-wide nets may be an efficient way to catch fish, but it sure doesn't leave much behind to build up a new generation of fish. The practice of discarding tons of fish caught in nets due to low market prices is absolutely appalling, and should be a criminal offense. This isn't the random discarding of a few hundred pounds of damaged or mangled fish; this is the wholesale destruction of thousands of TONS of fish. I recommend this book to anyone interested in history, and unusual history at that. I also think many other kinds of readers would get something out of this book. Who knew fish could be so interesting? Give this a shot.
Rating:
Summary: Cod Changed My Life
Review: Cod changed my life. I love cod. I never thought a fish could have such an impact on my life. People don't understand my feeling for this fish. I wish people would't judge Cod until they have experienced Cod. Cod rules!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Some interesting history. Quite a few cod recipes.
Review: Cod is the fish that fueled European exploration of the north Atlantic and this is part of its story. Mark Kurlansky's book begins with material suggesting the collapse of today's cod fishery, then flashes backward. He calls today the end of "a thousand year fishing spree," but really picks up the story of cod in the Fifteenth Century, after just six pages about earlier times. He seems to have no knowledge of the early northern Europeans who fished for cod in the north Atlantic. So his story starts several thousand years too late. He spent some time as a commercial fisherman and he shows an adequate grasp of this part of his subject. There are cod recipes at the ends of his chapters, a special chapter of cod recipes at the end, an interesting bibliography and an index.
Rating:
Summary: The Right Stuff and The Wrong Stuff
Review: Tom Wolfe writes about people who have The Right Stuff and people who have The Wrong Stuff. He's wickedly funny and accurate about people who have The Wrong Stuff and respectful but very interesting and observant about people who have The Right Stuff. This bewilders readers who cannot tell the difference between The Right Stuff and The Wrong Stuff. And it deeply offends those who have The Wrong Stuff. Hooking Up has these essays about people with The Wrong Stuff: Hooking Up; In the Land of the Rococo Marxist; The Great Relearning; Ambush at Fort Bragg; My Three Stooges; Foreword: Murderous Gutter Journalism; Tiny Mummies! The True Story of the Ruler of 43rd Street's Land of the Walking Dead; Lost in The Wichy Thickets: The New Yorker and Afterword: High in the Saddle. And it has these essays about people who have The Right Stuff: Two Men Who Went West; Digibabble, Fairy Dust, and the Human Anthill; Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died and The Invisible Artist. Buy this book. This is your chance for an evening of belly laughs if you know the difference between The Right Stuff and The Wrong Stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book!
Review: My wife bought this book for me last week and I began reading it a day after it arrived - I could not put it down. This is easily one of the best books I have read in several years and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the north Atlantic fishery from a management or historical perspective. Aside for a style that makes the book very easy to read the information content is simply outstanding. I have gone to fishing sites on the web and recommended it to other fisherpersons and I would recommend it to everyone else as well. Thom
Rating: 
Summary: what a nice little STORY
Review: Well, a biography of the fish that changed the world we're promised - which is absolutely NOT what we get. This book is pop-history at its best - marketable, sanatized, beleiviable, naive, and frankly repugnant. The only chapter whic offers any consideration of the biological characterisitics or potentials of this fish is chapter two, which is sixteen pages out of 233. Fair enough - he's an historian, not a biologist, Jim. To be fair, I find little incontestable (apart from the disgregarding of Native Inuit/ American fishing - sorely overlooked) about the historical progressions - mainly because I don't know an inexhaustible amount about North Sea fisheries. BUT - what is infuriating is the lack of political commitiment embodied in this book. We could have had a rousing call to oppose fishing on conservationist grounds, which would have been fair enough; but the novella opened ground for something so much more - and fell so short. What we could have had is an honest account of the a-nationality of over-fishing, the cultural specificity of conservationsit desrires (hinted at in his chapters detailing ethnographic study of NewFoundland fisherpeople) and the multifaceted role this fish played in North atlantic history. This might lead to a much more open and honest account of what has happened/ is to be done with fishes in the North Atlantic - beyond the stupidly tedious Cod-Wars and so on. More detail to the AGENCY of the fish might have elevated this above just another tedious study of an exploitation in a 'natural' resource by fishing fleets - this is hinted at by reference to cod changing their reproductive sea levels and temps, but is ultimately subsumed within the Kurlanskys's philisophically woolly concepts of 'nature's gift' and 'food of the wild'. What we end up with is yet another environemtnally determinist (he fails to hammer home even the historical indeterminancy of nation-states...) explanation (READ: description) of imperial expansion; attentive to historical detail perhaps, but lacking in current environmental or philisophical bite...
Rating:
Summary: Well worth the reputation
Review: This book was a recommended book by T.C. Boyle, by far my favorite author (sorry A. Hagy and M. Albrecht). My assumption is he was herded towards it because his forthcoming novel, "A Friend of the Earth" is to be about ecology, environmental issues, and the like. The book came out in 97 and was one of the New York Times top 25 books of the year. For good reason. Kurlansky writes in a very easy to read manner, well written, informative, at times even humorous. Even sprinkled with dozens of cod recipes. The history of Cod is the history of the world, the history of North America, a political essay, an ecological history, and of course, natural history. There are no footnotes, so I am assuming that the book was well researched by the attention to detail Kurlansky exhibits. North America was found due to cod. The Vikings were able to follow Cod from Europe to Nova Scotia and Greenland. It allowed them to have food the entire journey and not have to turn around. The U.S. revolution was partially due to Cod and the trade of it. There is an underlying message about the environment, as the Cod has become very endangered, as well as endangering many people, cities, lands that rely (relied) on Cod for income. Technology allowed us to get ahead of the natural production of this fish and numerous others according to the author. (Once discovered as a delicacy, Orange Roughy almost disappeared after only five years). Read in between the lines and one finds that it is the government subsidizing the fishing industry. The last few chapters are almost painful as entire chunks of Canada and Northeastern U.S. watch hopefully for Cod replenishments so they can go back to their old lives. In a short 264 pages, Mr. Kurlansky delivers 5 stars worth of information. Heavily recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great storytelling, lots of bias, a few mistakes
Review: This book is a wonderful exploration into food and, most importantly, into the lives of people who bring it to us. Its virtues, as that of codfish, have already been explained by other reviewers, so I shall only add an important correction. Storytelling (as nonfiction writing in general) usually involves the adoption of a particular point of view and the rejection of others. Kurlansky is good at that, and he writes with passion and cunning. But he should try to be a little more balanced in his judgements. I'm a Basque person and can recognize that Kurlansky loves us very much, but his pro-Basque bias is intolerable and can be misleading. For instance, I love cod and the way we cook it, but to say that "the most developed salt cod cuisine in the world is that of the Spanish Basque provinces" is a little bit of an exaggeration. Kurlansky should travel to Portugal (whose very important relation to cod is utterly neglected by the book) and try cod there. In the meantime, he should have the book proof-read, for the Spanish sentences are full of spelling errors. Eta on egin, as we say here.
Rating:
Summary: A unique perspective
Review: How unusual to find a book that traces the historical and economic impact of a single industry in such an entertaining fashion. This book is full of fascinating information that will satisfy history buffs as well as those interested in economics or even fishing. The inclusion of a variety of international and historical recipes for preparing codfish is a nice complement to the story. Great reading.
| 
