Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend The codfish. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been spurred by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it, and the settlement of North America was driven by it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious than gold. Indeed, the codfish has played a fascinating and crucial role in world history.Cod spans a thousand years and four… Product details and pricing info |
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117 Customer Reviews Posted
- Cutting to the Chase
- If you wondered like I did about how a book such as this could be compelling, you just need to trust the reviews and recommendations! This remarkably concise and crisp book, kept the pages turning in my hands.
The worlds fisheries are in a state of partial collapse all over the world, and unless we pay heed to the painstaking research and evidence of books such as this, we are going to find out the hard way how it feels when history repeats itself. Its not just a book, its a prelude to our own fisheries future. - 2007-03-13, 3 of 4 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Like a tasteless fishstick
- Cod could have been a good book but the author, Mark Kurlansky, seems intent on driving home his point that the cod fish has been vital through the course of civilization. Unfortunately, Mr. Kurlansky isn't afraid to exaggerate or in some cases simply twist the truth in order to make this point. I can't speak for the entire book since I am not an expert on the entire history that he covers, but I can point out a couple of blatant errors. "How did the Vikings survive in greenless Greenland", Mr. Kurlansky asks on page 21. Cod is his answer. But that is incorrect. Greenland was not "greenless" when the Vikings settled there. As a quick trip to Wikipedia shows, Greenland was much warmer at the times the Vikings settled there. "These remote communities thrived and lived off farming, hunting and trading..." Not a single mention of fishing for cod. The second serious error of fact has to do with the Pilgrims. The author claims that the Mayflower was heading to New England for the rich cod fisheries. This is not true. The Pilgrims were actually headed 250 miles further south to the mouth of the Hudson River and only ended up in New England because of bad weather, lack of reliable maps, and illness on board ship. The book "Mayflower" doesn't even have an index entry for "cod" which would seem fairly unlikely if the fish was really as important as Mr. Kurlansky makes it out. These are two very serious errors and leave the entire book open to question. Looking through the reviews on Amazon I found quite a few small errors mentioned. Is any of Mr. Kurlansky's remaining history reliable?
What about the book in general? It is what is best called pop-history. Short chapters that mention a topic but go into depth on nothing is the rule. A perfect example is his discussion of the three cod wars between Great Britain and Iceland. You will find very little detail on a topic that could have been very interesting. Instead Mr. Kurlansky moves quickly through the wars apparently to keep to his sixteen-page chapter limit. We don't even get a detailed chapter on the star of the book, the cod. A simple fact such as that cod is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids isn't even mentioned. And there are also many examples of contradictions within the book. For example, on page 145 Mr. Murlansky says that the Icelandic fishermen avoided basing their boats in the fjords because they used oar-powered boats and it "would have added too many hours or rowing time to and from the fishing grounds." But a couple of sentences later he says the fishermen preferred to use oars "because the winds around fjords are erratic." If the fishermen aren't traveling through the fjords then why are the winds in the fjords even relevant?
Overall, the book is lightweight, quick reading that will be forgotten soon after reading. The book is not much like the many interesting cod recipes that Mr. Kurlansky sprinkles through the book but more like processed fish sticks produced by factory ships. - 2007-02-09, 8 of 15 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Kurlansky can weave history!
- Kurlansky is a fabulous writer. He makes history come alive. Cod makes for fascinating reading. If you like natural history with its social implications you'll enjoy Kurlansky.
- 2007-02-01, 2 of 5 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- The story of the world through the life of a fish
- I've always preferred reading topical rather than general history. For instance, my favourite history of modern Japan is in fact a history of the Mitsui family from 1600 to 1970. The story of Atlantic cod is just such a story. By concentrating on the history of one industry, cod fishing, we come to learn many aspects of European and North American history.
We learn how cod helped the Vikings colonize Greenland and Newfoundland, we read of Basque fisherman being already fishing off the coast of Canada before John Cabot or Jacques Cartier crossed the Atlantic. More recent history is covered and Kurlansky writes of how cod fishermen were affected by the establishment of territorial waters first at three miles, then at 12, finally at 200 km from a country's coast. The account of the cod wars between Iceland and the United Kingdom would have been hilarious if it had been fiction; fortunately no one died.
I preferred Kurlansky's other food history book "Salt" because of the wealth of detail it contains and the greater scope it gives history. Even so, I rate "Cod" a little higher because it is more focused than is "Salt" and easier to read.
The only negative comment I can make is that Kurlansky is a bit of a tease. He makes our mouths water with his stories of cod and how fishermen love to eat it and he gives us many recipes. But the author knows full well that Atlantic cod is no longer available and that therefore we are missing the vital ingredient for all these wonderful dishes. Oh well, I'll have to settle for Japanese tara!
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo - 2007-01-18, 5 of 6 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- An interesting book
- This book came highly recommend to me. I enjoyed it very much, especially the first half which dealt with the cod's place in history. The second half does serve as interesting moral for our times in dealing with other supposedly unlimited natural resources such as oil and natural gas.
- 2007-01-12, 2 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
