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I got wrapped up thinking about Obamania about then, so I completely forgot those links. I followed one into high fructose corn syrup wonderland. What a nightmare. HFCs are everywhere.
I didn't read Salt. But the basic premise, following historical conflicts through a single comodity is a pretty good one. Except I think its even better to broaden the concept.
I used something like that while reading up on Spinoza. His father was a dried fruit merchant. When Spinoza was given the writ by the rabbi, it meant that Spinoza couldn't take over the business, so he was in effect exiled from his means of earning a living. Dried fruit? Following the dried fruit trade first leads to Spain and Portugal (Expulsion of the Jews, therefore family imigration to Amsterdam), then to North Africa and the Islamic world. Tracing dried fruit also takes you to global imperial power struggles between Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands. That gets you to the Americas, south and southeast Asia. There were sure no shortages of conflicts to look at in any of those places.
The other way I've used this idea, just to get a feel for history in general is to trace spices. This is a lot of fun for anybody into cooking. The most obvious trace out of Europe was Marco Polo. But pick a spice, google, and behold. I recalled that trip of the mind from this morning's contemplation over Turmeric.
Tracking spices also seems fun especially for thinking about cultural histories and changes in cultural histories.
CG