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

Deep within the Earth, in colossal tombs of rock, lie the fossilized remains of primordial oceans and seas that vanished in cataclysmic evaporation millions of years ago, leaving behind 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 our bodies. The currency of civilizations-essential for life and preservation spanning millennia, a reign of importance far exceeding oil's mere century and a half-salts are still vital, as a base for most modern pharmaceuticals. Now salt is the core ingredient in a bold new energy strategy, with innovators pioneering sodium-ion batteries to exploit salt's ubiquity, and bypass the scarcity and geopolitical constraints of lithium.

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.

Readers' Favorite 5-Star Review Award

"Salts by La Toya Tanaka introduces salt as matter that begins in an electron transfer and grows into a force that shapes physiology, settlement, authority, belief, and technology.... The book's power comes from this consistent use of direct evidence, which gives each chapter a firm internal logic and shows how control of a basic mineral shaped public life across varied eras."-Asher Syed, Readers' Favorite 5-Star Review