Award winning book

Earth's most secretive minerals?crystalline time capsules from a world long forgotten?have birthed empires and sparked revolutions. They are salts, plain and simple.

What begins as a fundamental electron bond becomes a charged force, blueprinting human civilization. La Toya Tanaka's rigorously researched book traces how salt minerals have been even more important than oil?and for a longer period of time. From shaping early settlement, political authority, physiology, healing practices to modern energy storage, salts have crystallized life across eras.

Deep within the Earth, in colossal tombs of rock, lie the fossilized remains of primordial oceans, seas that vanished in cataclysmic evaporation millions of years ago, leaving behind stark, precious crystals. More than just flavor, they are a geologic treasure?a silent archive of planetary history.

This is the untold story of the substance you consume every day: how minerals governed the fate of civilizations, paid the wages of Roman soldiers, preserved history, and continue to drive the very functions of your body.

From the deadly, dark shafts of the world's oldest salt mines to the startling chemical reactions that sustain all life, you're going to discover the raw power and terrifying fragility of Earth's most essential elements.

You'll never look at your salt shaker the same way again.