Cod: A Biography Of The Fish That Changed The WorldWars have been fought over it, revolutions have been spurred by it, national diets have been based on it, economies have depended on it, and the settlement of North America was driven by it. 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. Cod is a charming tour of history with all its economic forces laid bare and a fish story embellished with great gastronomic detail. It is also a tragic tale of environmental failure, of depleted fishing stocks where once the cod's numbers were legendary. In this deceptively whimsical biography of a fish, Mark Kurlansky brings a thousand years of human civilization into captivating focus. |
Contents
Sentry on the Headlands | 1 |
A FISH TALE | 15 |
With Mouth Wide Open | 32 |
The Cod Rush | 48 |
Certain Inalienable Rights | 78 |
A Cod War Heard Round the World | 92 |
The Last Two Ideas | 127 |
Iceland Discovers the Finite Universe | 144 |
Requiem for the Grand Banks | 177 |
The Dangerous Waters of Natures | 191 |
Bracing for the Spanish Armada | 207 |
Bracing for the Canadian Armada | 219 |
SIX CENTURIES | 235 |
Bibliography | 277 |
Acknowledgments | 283 |
Three Wars to Close the Open | 158 |
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Common terms and phrases
ackee American Atlantic cod bacalao Basque became boat boiled Boston butter Cabot Canada Canadian Caribbean catch century chopped chowder Coast Guard cod fishery cod head cod stocks codfish cold colonies commercial cook cured cod dish dory draggers dried eggs England European fillets fish fleet foundland French fresh cod fried gadiform garlic Georges Bank Gloucester Gorton's Grand Banks Grindavík groundfish haddock hake harbor hauled huge Iceland Icelandic Coast Guard island John's Labrador land liver longlining Massachusetts merchants molasses moratorium morue nation Newfoundland North America North Atlantic North Sea Nova Scotia onions overfishing pepper Petty Harbour pieces pork ports Portuguese potatoes pounds recipe Reykjavík sail salt cod saltfish Sam Lee sauce schooners seafood companies ships side skin slaves sliced soaked Spain Spanish species stockfish taste town trade trawl trawlers vessels West Indies whale