Rating: 
Summary: Much more than fish!
Review: Finally a widely recommended book that live up to expectations!
If one was just to take a quick glance at the cover their hesitancy to read a book seemingly only about a fish would be understandable but such a face value evaluation of the book sells it far too short!
Far than just looking at Cod this book rangers across the ocean of human experience and can teach us much. The struggles of finding a place for the past within modernity was a major theme throughout the work with a constant stream of unemployed or underemployed fishermen. It isn't often that those of us who grew up thinking that food just magically appeared in our downtown supermarkets are confronted with the question of what responsibility we have to those groups of people who's work made modernity possible - but who have since become marginalized by that same force; namely fishermen and farmers. This is not the major purpose of the book and no easy answers are given but it was certainly a striking aspect to me personally because of what a mess of a problem it is and how many factors get tangled up in it from political to environmental concerns.
Likewise I believe my fellow supermarketers will get a new perspective on man's relationship with food throughout history. Today I decide what I want to eat based largely on whimsy - what I want I can get; in the past the process was inverted with the supply driving the equation not demand. Cultures were shaped by not just the availability of food sources but by the types of food that were available. So interesting seeing the differences between those "fish cultures" and more agrological ones.
Don't let the fishy subject matter deter you from reading this wonderful book if you aren't really of the outdoors persuasion. While like most kids growing up I have done my share of summertime fishing I wouldn't consider myself a fisher by any stretch of the imagination but it didn't matter because this book is about so much more. The writing style is also very engaging, I never got the feeling that Kurlansky was reaching to fill up an entire book about Cod - if anything I felt that he could have gone on a lot longer but restrained himself for literary purposes.
The amount of trash being published these days makes this book's excellence stand out all the more! A must read!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and informative , but ...
Review: This book is another interesting and informative, but narrow subject history book of the type this author prefers to write. In some sections it poses as a cookbook. I was irritated by the amount of text actually devoted to Codfish recipes, when what I purchased was a historical type book . The author has a very good writing style. The book covers the early history of some cultures that took advantage of this bottom dwelling fish prized for its unique white meat. The Codfish affected these early cultures as it still does today, where regional and national economies are suffering from the impact of worldwide diminishing Codfish stocks in spite of some sporadic conservation measures.
This reader recommends ignoring the all too frequent codfish recipes interspersed with the good historical information. This book makes for a fine compact interesting history of man's relationship with the Codfish. Ignore the historical section and I suppose it would be a passable Codfish cookbook.
Rating:
Summary: A bitter ecological tale for our time
Review: This is a fascinating book. It's also very sad, because it illustrates the ability of modern people to almost unconsciously wipe out the natural resources of our planet. Codfish were once the "buffalo" of the oceans -- big, fat, useful and dumb. As one early explorer wrote, to catch cod all you need do is lower and bucket into the water and haul it back up full of fish. Sorta like buffalo in the days when passengers could shoot them from the windows of passing trains as a harmless sport intended solely to break the boredom of the trip. Yes, this book is a bitter ecological tale for our time. It is also a wonderful history of a marvelous fish. Kurlansky obviously had fun writing it, and his love of cod shows in the comfortable style of his writing. He delves into word origins for the different ways used to describe cod, and he plays with the history of a dozen or so nations to illustrate the impact one fish had on entire peoples. Plus, he includes dozens of recipes by which cod was cooked for generations. But he also explains why such an international treasure has almost vanished. "Whatever steps are taken, one of the greatest obstacles to restoring cod stocks off Newfoundland is an almost pathological collective denial of what has happened," Kurlansky writes near the end of the book. "Newfoundlanders seem prepared to believe anything other than they have killed off nature's bounty." What happened? Kurlansky writes that "One Canadian journalist published an article pointing out that the cod disappeared from Newfoundland at about the same time that stocks started rebuilding in Norway. "Clearly the northern stock had packed up and migrated to Norway," he adds. If this is the Canadian attitude, in one of the self-proclaimed best educated and wealthiest of nations, it's not hard to understand why and how Third World nations have environmental problems. My personal experience with a similar depletion is in the Sea of Cortez, where Mexican fishermen have taken about 20 years to just about exterminate the sharks. Shrimp boats, based in Puerto Penasco, have likewise decimated the shrimp. Who's to blame? The United States, of course, because the Americans built dams on the Colorado River which prevents the river water from reaching the sea. There's always someone else to blame. As I said earlier, it's a sad book. Yet, it is an excellent one and perhaps one of the most appropriate to read in terms of what is fast happening to our marine life. Cod are invisible, not like cute furry little baby seals which so excited Europeans a few years ago when they saw how Canadians clubbed them to death to avoid marking the fur. If the future of our world depends on cute pictures on TV, then our future is truly in deplorable shape. But, the fact this book exists and is written with elegance, style, wit and great insight, may persuade thick-headed politicians that even "invisible" wildlife deserves protection from our greed and ignorance. If not, and having known many politicians for many years I'm not optimistic, it is a beautiful elegy to a noble fish. What happens when a native species disappears? Well, two centuries ago the US Southwest had some of the world's finest grasslands. Then came the Russian Thistle, an almost useless weed that choked out the grass. Now we celebrate this import in song, "See them tumbling along . . . . . the tumbling tumbleweeds." It happens.
Rating: 
Summary: Gastronomic History
Review: Mark Kurlansky's 'fish tale' spans over 400 years of American and world history to reveal how something as seemingly insignificant as one species can alter the course of a country's history. Starting with the Basque fishermen who may have 'discovered' North American before Columbus (but after the Norse), Kurlansky shows how cod became a staple in our diet and affected incidents such as the American Revolution and slavery. He also makes a good case for conservation of the modern Atlantic cod, and present factors that could render this fish for all intents and purposes extinct. From my perspective, the 'cod wars' of the mid-20th century were the most entertaining, and provide a mirror for more well-known historical events such as the Cold War. Sprinkled throughout are recipes -- modern and ancient -- for preparing cod, including snacking on codheads. On the whole, a fascinating look at how war, diplomacy, trade and exploration were fueled by one species, and how we refuse to change our customs, diets, and livelihoods even if we are destructive to our environment and ourselves.
Rating:
Summary: What a dish!
Review: This book has to be one of the most entertaining history texts in, well, history. I couldn't put it down. What a joy!
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