Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER | BY THE AUTHOR OF NYT BESTSELLER SALT

From the author of the viral TikTok sensation Salt, an unexpected, energetic look at world history via the humble cod fish

"In [Kurlansky’s] hands, the cod proves intriguing… a hero of history… emblematic of a great crisis in the relation of people to nature."—New York Times

Wars 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. 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.