Salt, a World History by Mark Kurlansky is a detailed history of many human events regarding salt. The style of this book is a full informative, giving much information, but its lack of plot and consistent setting or characters provide little engagement to the reader. In salt there is a wide range of salt related history ranging from ancient and modern practices to political disputes and even salt based rebellions. Mark Kurlansky’s writing continually expands on political, economic and cultural uses of salt and its effects on history, however its form of presentation of these facts makes it challenging for it to be called an enjoyable read. Despite his book not being recommended pleasure reading Mark Kurlansky can still be seen to use techniques to express important elements of non-fiction.

 

Notes and analysis of salt can be seen below.

 

One of the major elements of non-fiction is central idea, central ideas can be expressed in non-fiction through motifs of similar events or strong explicit or implicit statements. Due to the dry style of salt motif and statements  are often clearly explicit and therefore easier see in writing, and categorise with a central idea. Below is flow chart of catorgised central idea with supporting details from the text.

 

 

Typically in life major events do not just randomly happen without any cause , so it is important that any factual book wether narrative or full informative, when telling of important events, to include the various causes and effects. It is important to realize that the whole concept of cause and effect is not as simple as a cause leads to an event which has the desired effect, rather there is typically many causes leading to event(s) that have many effects both desired and not desired. Below is a simplified showing of the indian salt rebellion causes and effects from salt.

Word choice is important to every author of any writing, as it has to be constantly carefully chosen in order to keep the reader engaged. In salt, however it is clear that the reader intrest is not the top priority in word choice and as a result the reader is not usually engaged. Salt along with many other books has other priorities for word choice; as it is so commonly thought about, it is also a great way to express theme. This can be seen in Mark Kurlansky’s sinking town of Northwich writing.

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Kurlansky’s writing often emphasises the economic uses of salt, countiuely in topics such as monopoly and currency. Below are supporting details for this specific economic based central idea.