New Lives for Ancient and Extinct Crops profiles nine plant species that were important contributors to human diets and medicinal uses in antiquity: maygrass, chenopod, marsh elder, agave, little barley, chia, arrowroot, little millet, and bitter vetch. Each chapter is written by a well-known scholar, who illustrates the value of the ancient crop record to inform the present.

Paul E. Minnis is a professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Minnis's books include Biodiversity and Native America, Social Adaption to Food Stress, Ethnobotany: A Reader, The Neighbors of Casas Grandes: Excavating Medio Period Communities of Northwestern Chihuahua, Casas Grandes and Its Hinterland: Prehistoric Regional Organization in Northwest Mexico, People and Plants in Ancient Western North America, and People and Plants in Ancient Eastern North America, among others.