 Author Name: Mark Kurlansky
Title: COD: A BIOGRAPHY OF THE FISH THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Binding: Paperback
Type: BOOK
Publisher: PENGUIN/PUTNAM (PENGUIN ACCT)
ISBN Number: 0140275010 / 9780140275018
Seller ID: 1596255
An optimistic new message about existence, for scientist & layperson alike. 7x5 inches, 294 pgs.
'A delightful romp through history with all its economic forces laid bare, Cod is the biography of a single species of fish, but it may as well be a world history with this humble fish as its recurring main character. Cod, it turns out, is the reason Europeans set sail across the Atlantic, and it is the only reason they could. What did the Vikings eat in icy Greenland and on the five expeditions to America recorded in the Icelandic sagas' Cod--frozen and dried in the frosty air, then broken into pieces and eaten like hardtack. What was the staple of the medieval diet' Cod again, sold salted by the Basques, an enigmatic people with a mysterious, unlimited supply of cod. As we make our way through the centuries of cod history, we also find a delicious legacy of recipes, and the tragic story of environmental failure, of depleted fishing stocks where once their numbers were te fate of the universe. Here--for scientist and layperson alike, for philosopher, science-fiction reader, biologist, and computer expert--is a startlingly complete and rational synthesis of disciplines, and a new, optimistic message about existence.
"A medieval fisherman is said to have hauled up a three-foot-long cod, which was common enough at the time..."
Price =
15.00 USD |
