Interesting and well-illustrated overview of how Laws' 50 selected plants have impacted on human history. Being a botanist myself, and therefore inherently interested in plants, there's honestly not a lot in here that was new to me, but even so I enjoyed reading it. I can't help but think, though, that I'd be more interested in reading a book-length history of each of the plants represented here. That's not what Laws is doing, and I'm not faulting him for it - this is a book that gives a little information about a lot of plants, not the reverse, and it fulfils its brief well. It's just not in-depth enough to cater to me personally.