This ambitious book covers an enormous range of topics in considerable detail, with up-to-date and relevant information on each subject, particularly from a US perspective. There are 23 chapters in four sections: Making of a Wheat Plant: Making of a Wheat Crop; Making of a Wheat Cultivar; and Making of a Wheat Industry. The signposting of sections and subjects is excellent, enabling the reader to find areas of interest quickly and easily.

After discussing origins of wheat, growth and development of the plant, underlying genes controlling developmental events and flowering, the book moves on to a very comprehensive discussion of major challenges to production. These include diseases (genetic variation, basis for resistance), challenges of cultivation technique to disease control, problems caused by insect pests, weed competition, nitrogen use and an excellent chapter on drought stress. Unfortunately there is no chapter on viral diseases. The section on breeding reviews techniques thoroughly, explores the benefits of new technology (including sections on new synthetics and transgenic wheat), and speculates as to how genomics studies will improve efficiency. The industry section deals with the complex classification of wheat, explores the biochemical and molecular basis for grain quality and finishes with a review of the US marketing and price discovery system.

The book is a sound reference source for academics, students, breeders and professionals in the wheat industry. It leaves the reader reflecting on the view of the contributors Baenziger and DePauw that “Wheat breeding. . . will remain a profession that is filled with the joy and satisfaction of creating new cultivars that can change human lives for the better.”