This captivating if occasionally eccentric volume is as much a history of humankind as it is a survey of the reproductive strategies of plants. The Triumph of Seeds is divided into five sections, each covering a function or characteristic of seeds. ‘Seeds nourish’ introduces the germination of seeds and their exploitation as foodstuffs. ‘Seeds unite’ discusses evolution and heredity. ‘Seeds endure’ covers dormancy and the rise of modern seed banks. ‘Seeds defend’ describes seeds’ protective strategies, including poisons and spices. Finally, ‘Seeds travel’ concludes with accounts of seed dispersal and biogeography. Conservation biologist Thor Hansen, author of The Impenetrable Forest: Gorilla Years in Uganda (2014), uses The Triumph of Seeds to chronicle everything from the emergence of seed-bearing plants in the Carboniferous to the role of cotton in the Industrial Revolution.

For historians of science The Triumph of Seeds provides a useful and enjoyable overview of often-overlooked topics in agricultural science, practice and history. Hansen draws upon his own career, home experiments, interviews and case studies. The book is strongest in its often-seamless transitions from historical narratives to developments and practices in modern science and agriculture. One instance begins with the story of Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov, first director of the Institute of Applied Botany. Founded in 1920, amid severe grain shortages, the institute received generous funding from the Bolshevik state, allowing Vavilov to assemble the world's largest seed bank in Leningrad. Despite his persecution and death during the infamous rise of Lysenkoism under Stalin, seed banks based on Vavilov's model emerged around the world. Today, notable facilities include the near-indestructible National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Colorado and the Svalbard-based ‘Doomsday Vault’ (p. 103).

Answering the question of why seeds matter, Hansen cites botanist Carol Baskin, who responds with the quip ‘What did you eat for breakfast?’ (p. 18). The Triumph of Seeds aims to set out a straightforward account of the importance of seeds in human history. Cooked grains are characterized as a significant driving force in human evolution. The biogeography of grasses, the advent of agriculture and the rise of ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean is adopted wholesale from Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel (1997). Grain shortages are linked to diverse political events, from the fourth-century Wu Hu uprising to the advent of the Arab Spring in Tunisia. Seeds are also cited as significant historical drivers in other contexts. For instance, Hansen establishes coffee as the ‘Great Soberer’ of early modern Europe, replacing the ‘habitual tipsiness’ of beer drinkers to drive advances in science, commerce and industry (p. 151).

Beyond sweeping assertions – perhaps unavoidable in a broad work aimed at a diverse audience – The Triumph of Seeds contains moments that jar with historical sensibilities. Hansen's characterization of Gregor Mendel as ‘the father of modern genetics’ (p. 71) would not be out of place in a standard biology textbook. The famed rediscovery of the monk's findings at the turn of the twentieth century passes without reference to the biometrician–Mendelian debate. Similarly, no mention appears of later allegations that Mendel's data was simply too good to be true. Elsewhere, Hansen describes Charles Darwin's Beagle voyage as an instance of scientific epiphany, yet later acknowledges scholarly debate on the matter and the influence of Darwin's London-based collaborators. Yet it is easy to collect such omissions and difficulties in an ambitious work aimed at a general audience. The real question is why they occur, and whether members of our own field have done enough to inform other disciplines of the historical debates and nuances that matter to us.

The Triumph of Seeds closes with musings on the future of plant evolution and possible implications of genetically modified crops. Infertile hybrids and recombinant DNA technology are portrayed as challenging traditional farming, bringing patent disputes and environmental concerns. Although the evolutionary dominance of seed-bearing plants is unlikely to end in the foreseeable future, our relationship with them may soon change beyond recognition. Hansen offers no solution to contemporary problems, but hopes that his efforts at least prove seeds to be ‘worthy of debate’ (p. 213). This will certainly be the case for future histories of seeds and agriculture, which will need to confront new developments in modern plant genetics and environmentalism.