It is probably superfluous to describe in detail such a well-known text, one that is present in any decent engineering or physics library. This is the second edition of a classic reference work in electrical engineering. Its 1,000-plus pages extend the discussion in the highly regarded 1964 edition in several areas, and supply an up-to-date bibliography.

The text consists of 21 chapters (on topics such as “Linear Analysis,” “Electrostatic Fields in the Presence of Dielectrics,” “Radiation in a Material Medium,” and “High- and Low-Frequency Fields”), and 10 useful appendices (on such topics as “Vector Analysis in Three Dimensions,” “Vector Analysis on a Surface,” “Special Functions,” and “Transforms”) summarizing relevant mathematical background. In addition to a bibliography that separately lists “General Texts on Electromagnetic Theory,” “Texts that Discuss Particular Areas of Electromagnetic Theory,” and “Mathematical Techniques Specifically Applied to Electromagnetic Theory,” there are tables listing the acronyms and symbols used in the book, and indices of authors and subjects.

The book is probably not, even in part, directly usable as a course textbook, partly because the mathematical treatment is not always sufficiently deep and detailed, as is almost always the case in a reference work that is targeted at both academics and practitioners. Even so, parts of it could be judiciously supplemented with other material to form the basis of coursework, and the many useful exercises that are given after each chapter will be appreciated by both instructors and students.

The book appears to be very well written, and is excellently edited and produced. There is no doubt that it will be received as well as its previous edition has been.