For the last 50 years, weed management strategies in industrialized countries have become dependent upon chemical weed control. The reduced weed competition achieved with herbicides, now widely accepted as ‘conventional weed control’ is, along with other agro‐chemicals, plant breeding, fertilizers and mechanized traction, one of the cornerstones of a high‐yielding, labour‐efficient agriculture. However, there is an increasing concern among agricultural scientists and the general public of many problems associated with this dependence on purchased inputs, including the growing problem of herbicide‐resistant weed populations, environmental pollution, threats to human health and declining profitability in an era of low commodity prices. From this starting point, Ecological management of agricultural weeds argues for alternative approaches to weed management, less dependent on herbicides and more reliant on an understanding and manipulation of resource competition, allelopathy, herbivory, disease, seed and seedling responses to tillage, and succession. The authors call this concept ‘ecological weed management’ and see the aim to be the creation of weed‐suppressive systems that minimize the use of herbicides. This volume critically reviews the literature on ecological weed management and relevant aspects of weed ecology. It identifies the principles underlying ecological management practices, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of a range of weed management options in the context of different cropping systems, and attempts to identify researchable gaps in current understanding of the subject. After outlining their perceptions of the major problems associated with conventional systems, the authors, whose experience ranges from high‐input systems of the USA to smallholder systems in Latin America, identify the vulnerable phases in weed life cycles that are most susceptible to non‐chemical control methods. The following chapters focus on a range of non‐chemical weed control tactics, considering how these can be built into agricultural systems. These include tillage, water and soil fertility management, genetic and cultural enhancement of the competitive ability of crops, crop diversification, opportunities for biological control and the integration of livestock into cropping systems for weed control by grazing. Discussion of the opportunities afforded by non‐chemical methods has been updated and expanded since the publication of Weed management in agroecosystems: ecological approaches (Altieri and Liebman, 1988) and Ecology in agriculture (Jackson, 1997), of which Professor Liebmann was, respectively, co‐editor and a contributor. In addition, Ecological management of agricultural weeds provides stimulating insights into a number of challenging issues that are not covered in depth in other weed science texts. It is concluded that to manipulate ecological processes effectively, greater precision will be needed in our ability to predict evolutionary responses of weeds to proposed management strategies. The authors point out that most conventional weed management practices are motivated by the short‐term goals of reducing weed impact on the current crop and prevention of seed shed that could affect the following crop. They suggest that for ecological weed management it will be necessary for farmers to lengthen their planning horizons to manage phenomena relating to weed diversity and community composition. Aspects of weed evolution and community structure, including a useful discussion of weed genecology, are therefore dealt with in some detail. For the farmer, the application of methods based upon ecological concepts will inevitably be a knowledge‐intensive process. Knowledge as the interface between the scientist–extensionist and the farmer has often received too little attention in the research and development process. It is therefore refreshing to find that the authors pay particular attention to farmer decision‐making in weed management and to the ways in which farmer participation in the development of ecological approaches can be strengthened. Ecological management of agricultural weeds provides a welcome addition to the weed science literature and will provide a useful text for students wishing to learn about the principles of weed ecology. The book also provides many pointers for agriculturists and policy‐makers wishing to reduce reliance on herbicides in the industrialized world. However, many of the ideas discussed are equally relevant for encouraging the rational use of chemical weed control when integrated with cultural methods. Weeding remains a constant burden for the rural poor in the developing world, and in some situations farmers are turning to herbicides to both improve the timeliness of weed control and, with increasing off‐farm employment opportunities, to overcome labour constraints. The principles outlined by the authors can be employed to enhance this process of reducing yield loss due to weeds but the challenge will be how to package and disseminate such knowledge‐intensive systems when all to often extension institutions are at best under‐staffed and at worst dysfunctional.