US: Oil prices are climbing, motorists are fuming, and President Bush is at his ranch with a book about the history of salt. There could be a connection.
According to the White House, one of three books Bush chose to read on his five-week vacation is Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, a writer who chronicled the rise and fall of what once was considered the world's most strategic commodity.
The other two books he reportedly brought with him to Crawford are Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky and The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M Barry.
"The president enjoys reading and learning about history," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
But the analogies between salt and oil are striking.
For most of recorded history, salt was synonymous with wealth. It established trade routes and cities. Adventurers searched for it. Merchants hoarded it. Governments taxed it. Nations went to war over it.
More than four centuries ago, Queen Elizabeth I warned of England's growing dependence on foreign salt. France's salt tax was one of the grievances that gave rise to the revolution of 1789.
Then, in the early 20th century, salt became ubiquitous. Refrigeration reduced its value as a preservative, and geological advances revealed its global abundance.
"It seems very silly now, all of the struggles for salt," Kurlansky said.
"It's quite probable that some day, people will read about our struggles for oil and have the same reaction."
Kurlansky said he was surprised to hear that Bush had taken his book to the ranch: "My first reaction was, 'Oh, he reads books?'"
The author said he was a "virulent Bush opponent" who has given speeches denouncing the war in Iraq.
"What I find fascinating, and it's probably a positive thing about the White House, is they don't seem to do any research about the writers when they pick the books," Kurlansky said.
Barry, author of The Great Influenza, said that he too has been a Bush critic. But his views have not deterred the administration from seeking his advice on the potential for another pandemic like the 1918 outbreak that claimed millions of lives worldwide.
The administration, Barry said, was investigating what steps public officials could take to lessen the severity of a flu pandemic.
A central theme of Barry's book is that the 1918 outbreak was exacerbated in the United States by the government's attempts to downplay its significance, partly to avoid undermining the war effort.
"One lesson is to absolutely take it seriously. I'm not a great fan of the Bush administration, but I think they are doing that," Barry said.
The book about Alexander II may have special relevance to Mr Bush, who obtained an advance copy of the English translation scheduled for publication in November.
Alexander II, who ruled Russia from 1855 to 1881, was known as the "Czar Liberator" because he freed 23 million Russian slaves in 1861, two years before Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
But his governmental reforms ultimately were his undoing.
On the right, they provoked a conservative backlash.
On the left, they contributed to a radical political movement that used targeted violence to accomplish its aims, including a wave of murders and bombings.
When he decided to halt the reform process, the violence intensified. Alexander II became, in effect, the first world leader to declare a war on terror. He would not be the last.
"We, Russia, created the first great terrorist organisation in the world," Radzinsky said in a phone interview from Moscow. "We are the father of terror, not Muslims."
Radzinsky said he assumed Bush had drawn the connection to the terrorists of today.
"Very noble young people who dreamed about the future of Russia became killers, because blood destroys souls," Radzinsky said.
"That for me is the most important lesson." - (LA Times-Washington Post Service)