C. Wesley Cowan is a retired anthropologist and museum curator, the founder and owner of Cowan's Auctions, Inc., a star on the PBS series, History Detectives, and a frequent appraiser on Antiques Roadshow. Patty Jo Watson is Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor Emertia, Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis.

Nowhere else are the diverse factors influencing the origins of agriculture summarized at comparably large scales and made accessible to a similar range of non-specialists. - American Anthropologist ""Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of cultivated plants.... A particularly effective textbook The chapters are each an excellent introduction to the history of plant cultivation and domestication in their region and include much data and many references."" - American Antiquity