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Summary: Reminds us that history is often made by economics
Review: The author presents a readable overview of a fish that really did change the world. Kurlansky shows that while "great men" often drive history, resources and economics dictate the range of their choices and as often as not give a strong clue as to the probable direction of events.That said, this book gives tantalizing views of one of mankind's toughest and most dangerous industries - fishing. The reader may well appreciate the juxtaposition of gritty cod town life and the movement of nations in search of this most perfect food source. The book moves along quickly.
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Summary: Great Book! I highly Recommend It!
Review: A family member gave me this book for Christmas. Like others, I had no idea a full book could be written on this subject. Entertaining, suprising and frivolous - each development was more interesting as the book went along. I recommend it!
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Summary: Cods of the Gods
Review: Great book! Full of amusing anecdotes; very readable style. If you don't think that cod led the first explorers to America, started the American Revolution and tastes great dried, salted or poached, read this book.
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Summary: Great!
Review: Along with John McPhee's "Oranges" and Amal Naj's "Peppers," this is a great, great, readable, entertaining book on a topic I never thought I could read a whole book about. (And his writing is more grammatical than mine, too). I mean, it's a page-turner. Really. I had no idea that colonial New England's prosperity was founded on the export of cheaply cured, low quality salt cod to West Indian plantations, to feed slaves. Somehow that little detail got left out in my high school history class. (They don't mention it when they point to the cod in tours of the Massachusetts State House, either).
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Summary: A Wonderful Book !
Review: Having found this book sitting on my parents coffee table, I picked it up...read a few pages..and was HOOKED. Could not stop reading it for two days. Rarely have I enjoyed a book more throughly than 'Cod'. Kurlansky is a WONDERFUL writer and the book is pure delight. 'Cod' is part biography, part history, and part tragic fable, all wrapped into one charming tale.
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Summary: In cod we trust
Review: This was a really good read. I liken it to the PBS series "Connections". I had the pleasure of reading it at sea while off the Grand Banks to be followed by a visit to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. It really gave me a deep appreciation for the area and its people. I read this book in conjunction with Captains Coragous by Kipling and The Story of the Dory by somebody. A great backgrounder for table conversation when you're tired of the same old talk.
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Summary: A Great Start, But Misses The History In The End
Review: This book starts with a wonderful history of the Cod fisheries in the Atlantic. I enjoyed it, coming from a long line of Cape Code fishermen. However, little is said of the 'battles' with the massive Russian fishing fleets in the '60s and '70s. This lead to most of the destruction of the Grand and George's banks stocks. Also, more fresh (not salted or cured) cod receipes would have been very helpful. Since my family had access to fresh fish, we actually dislike the cured fish.
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Summary: All histories should be like this
Review: I enjoyed this book very much, if enjoy is the right word for the history of Man's inhumanity to nature, but I hope that I don't appear to be carping if I say that the repeated use of 'off of' when meaning off or from really irritated. By the way if you heard Rick Stein reading this on Radio 4 don't be put off! He's a great cook but reading aloud is not his forte.
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Summary: Offbeat and essential
Review: A terrific book! I had no idea that cod have played such a large role in the economic and social history of the western world. Tracing their story creates a spectacular cross-section of European and North American history. It's one of those books (rather like James Burke's Connections) that helps the reader figure out why things are the way they are, and understand the links between seemingly disparate elements of society and history. I often give my books away after reading them, but there's no way I'm parting with this one. By a lucky accident, I read Cod right after reading Kipling's Captains Courageous, which is set on a cod trawler working the Grand Banks in the 1890s. The two books reinforce each other -- one the historical summary, the other the detailed exploration of the daily life of those involved. A great combination.
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Summary: The longest fishing trip we've been on..
Review: Not a particularly handsome fish the cod has been a major part of our human foodstuffs for over one thousand years. And according to author Mark Kurlansky, it's the longest fishing trip that we've been on. The results? Yep, we've done it again. We've fished and eaten cod almost to extinction. The codfish, that once teemed by the millions in the cold waters off North Atlantic coasts has almost gone to oblivion along with the carrier pigeon. Cod fisheries no longer sustain scores of fishing villages, thousands of fishers - a way of life has also gone into oblivion. Our technologies, attitudes, and appetites have caused a codfish recipe to become an anachronism. Cod is remarkably similar to some other chronicles of environmental debacles. Barry Lopez' Arctic Dreams and John McPhee's Coming Into The Country come immediately to this reviewer's mind. Kurlansky writes with the authority of McPhee and the sensitivity of Lopez. Cod is as replete with recipes as John Hershey's Blues and Howell Raines' Flyfishing Through Midlife Crisis. Even Rasputin had a reputed favorite cod recipe that he claimed was the secret to his good health. Codfish have been written about for hundreds of year but this book seems to be the only dedicated piece to explore the impact of the cod on our psyche and palate. The Basques were the first to explore cod as a foodstuff applying salting techniques of whale meat to cod around the year 1000. Cod when salted and dried retains a major portion of protein to body weight and was at the time a remarkably stable preserved food. But where were the Basques getting their cod. None of the other European fishing nations ever sighted Basques fishing for cod. Yet there cod supplies were plentiful. In 1534. Jacques Cartier, "discoverer" of the mouth of the St. Lawrence River reported seeing over a thousand Basque fishing vessels A well kept secret was out and the first real rush of the American was on for cod. not gold. All the European countries fished the "banks" but none so successfully as the British and subsequently their colonists. The fish stocks in early reports were inexaustable as was the pomposity of the European attitude that nature would provide even with great fishing pressures. Ships were laden with salt ballast from the Mediterranean and taken to the northeast Atlantic fishing grounds, the fish were salted and packed and shipped back to England and other European ports where the stocks were sold primarily to the Portuguese and Spanish who had over many centuries developed a taste for the high quality cod form the new world. That there would be conflict was inevitable and the first of the cod wars happened in 1532. Cod also figured heavily in the American Revolution as it was one of the items taxed with representation and it appears from Kulansky's account that our revolution was spawned by those middle class entrepreneurs who wished to continue lucrative trade routes. It seems that there were quite a few cod traders among those who framed the Constitution. You could trade cod for molasses in the British West Indies, take it back to Boston and distill rum, take that to Africa and trade for slaves to take to the Indies to man the sugar cane plantations that grew the cane that became more molasses. The later cod wars were fought over fishing rights for a dwindling supply of fish and were fought in an unlikely part of the world that has determined who owns what and where in the oceans of the world. There were two cod wars and the upshot of these was to extend the fishing zone for Greenland up to fifty miles and later in 1977 to 200 miles, now the international standard. Wars, slavery, capitalism, expanding fishing technologies, government intervention and quotas, and our human palate have taken their toll on the cod. We live in cities that belch smog and ozone and go on as if there is no end. We all drive our own automobile clogging our lives with stress and inaneness and look wistfully at the high occupancy vehicle lane. It is no small wonder that we have missed the passing of the cod, just as we are missing the passing of the sea bass and other finny food sources. Kulansky points a collective finger at us, the human race, as perpetrators of yet another folly. It's not done maliciously, as Cod is an explanation - not an indictment. It's just business as usual
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