Book Review: The Triumph of Seeds; How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History by Thor Hanson

Seeds are all around us. Falling from trees, hanging in pods from bushes, bags and barrels of coffee beans, and floating in the air like tiny umbrellas from a dandelion. I could fill this page with so many more examples, but I’m confidant that you can look around your home, your office or just outside and see either seeds, or a tree or a plant that has come from a seed, even the oil in your car. Thor Hanson has written a whole book about seeds. Writing that is charming, humourous and historical. From jungles to farms to grocery stores and clothing. Seeds that airplanes are modeled after. The animals and birds that disperse seeds throughout the globe. Personally I recalled much about my dad and the wheat and flax that he grew, the care that was taken of the seeds of grain throughout each crop year. Thor Hanson talked of the vast seed banks throughout the world. I recalled the personal ‘seed bank’ samples that dad kept in his office from each years yield of grain. Thor Hanson talked of seeds that are poisonous and seeds that are medicinal and how they were developed.

To say I enjoyed this book would be an understatement. It’s one I’ll keep in my bookshelf as a resource and a thoroughly enjoyable read. Discussion this afternoon at Book Group was wide ranging and interesting as we followed Thor Hanson through the history and The Triumph of Seeds.

“Without the act and anticipation of plantng and harvest, there could be 

no agriculture as we know it, and our species would still be wanderng in 

small bands of hunters, gatherers, and herdsmen. Indeed, some experts believe that Homo sapiens might never 

have evolved at all in a world that lacked seeds.”

~ Thor Hanson, 

The Triumph of Seeds; How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses and Pips 

Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History

Title:  The Triumph of Seeds

Author:  Thor Hanson
Publisher: Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Publication Date: 2015
ISBN: 978-0-465-05599-9 (hc.: alk.paper)
ISBN: 978-0-465-04872-4 (e-book)
Type:  Non-Fiction