Classical Electrodynamics

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Summary: The Ubiquitous Physics-student's text on Electromagnetism!
Review: This is the textbook every physicist knows about. The ubiquitous, maroon book: and it's right here at Amazon.com! We must all relish in the headaches this text gives us. It is one of those few gems that physics students both abhor and treasure as one of their most valuable resources. Often terse in its mathematical derivations; but by design we see how they do not interfere with the most important aspect of the topic: the interpretation of the mathematical results -- the "physics" behind the math. Most of the problems in the book are "highly stimulating." As many professors tell their students: "you are not a physics student if you haven't lived through Jackson's electrodynamics."

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Summary: Classic but difficult and impenetrable treatment of E&M
Review: Jackson's text is widely considered a classic in the field, but it's not intended for the first-time student of classical electromagnetism. Instead, one must approach with a firm physical and mathematical grasp of Maxwell's equations. Then Jackson becomes an indispensable reference as it covers almost every significant classical topic, albeit only in a cursory survey. Read Jackson to get additional insight after you know the stuff; he definitely has things to teach you, if you're capable.

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Summary: One of the best texts on classical electrodynamics.
Review: This book has to be _the_ classic text for electrodynamics. The material is very readable with many examples and many, many problem sets. All the important topis in electromagnetics for physicists are covered in detail. There are, however, topics for engineers that could get more coverage. For example, waveguide and transmission line theory, Smith charts, etc. But, it is a very good book overall. I have heard some complaints that the problem sets are too hard. But, I think with reasonable effort, and a good teacher, the problems should not be that difficult.

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Summary: The Classical text for E & M
Review: Jackson's text still remains as the classic text for E & M. The problems are challenging and difficult I do admit. I found that having the mathematics background helped when it came to solving some of Jackson's problems. From the other reviews that I saw that gave this book low ratings probably didn't have the mathematical background to tackle this text. Before attempting to read and solve the problems of Jackson, you should have an excellent working knowledge of Multivariable calculus including vector calculus, differential equations (including partial differential equations),complex variables, Legendre and Bessel functions. If you don't have this background, you will have a very difficult time with this book.

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Summary: The book for electrodynamics
Review: A legend in its field; precise, vast, clear and once u can handle the math needed very rewarding. Simply a must for a physicist, reguardless the field. Furthermore a nice book for the eye and well made, so you wont have issues of this book falling appart in ur arms after a few openings.

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Summary: Mandatory reading... Deal with it.
Review: If you're looking at this, I'm sorry. I'm sorry because you've no way out of using this text for your graduate E and M course. (Unless you're at MIT where this is the required torture, uh... I mean text for the undergrad course.) As other comments state, nearly every grad-EM course uses this text. It doesn't matter what opinions are held about this work. It's very comprehensive, and very general. If you honestly plod through it, you can learn loads.

However, for practical advice, I recommend using Griffiths' EM book during the first semester as a supplement. I said "first semester," because if you can't figure out how to get through Jackson by the end of the first semester, you need to rethink ambitious dreams of a graduate degree in Physics. Reworking the problems in Griffiths' chapters 3 and 4 will go a long way in helping you understand the first three chapters of Jackson and they should be worked before the course begins.

This method has helped me, and hopfully it can help you. In any case... Good luck!


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Summary: A challenging textbook that never collects much dust
Review: Before I start, I would like to recognize that this book is not going to be loved by everyone. It is dense, it is filled with lots of mathematics, and requires a lot of effort to read. If you're not a graduate student in physics (or a very closely related field) you should not even consider this book.

That being said, I still give this book five stars. For anyone who's going to be a theoretical physicist, this book is invaluable. The techniques that are taught in this book -- spherical harmonics, differential equation solutions, and a myriad of problem solving skills -- are useful to me even today.

Jackson has a lot to say about many different topics, and his book is an extremely useful reference that I still go to multiple times a year. For a graduate student, this is the definitive book on Electro-Magnetism. It requires a *lot* of work to get through, as you cannot read and digest portions of it in just a fraction of an hour. The work is well worth it, though, and with a first-year E&M course with Jackson, you have an opportunity to learn a ridiculous amount of material.

For the record, you *don't* need to be a genius from CalTech to get a lot out of this book. It isn't easy, and it isn't for everyone. But if you're a motivated student who isn't afraid of a lot of hard work, you should enjoy it as much as I do.

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Summary: Not for everyone
Review: My first warning is that Jackson's text makes a terrible reference. If you want to thumb through to find a little nugget of information, you're going to get really really frustrated.

My second warning is that Jackson's text is, from a pedagogical standpoint, pretty lousy. It's not the book's intent to try to impart any physical intuition or knowledge of how E+M works. Deep familiarity and comfort with the foundations of E+M is an aboslute requirement. Jackson gives an extraordinarily rigorous exploration of various topics in E+M, but there's absolutely no pandering to the reader, and very little discussion outside of the mathematics.

What is this book good for, then? For most physics graduate students, the answer is "not very much." If you make it through the book, you'll have a great many powerful mathematical tools at your disposal to deal with many obscure E+M problems. However, there's really not much more value than that. It's not going to improve your physical intuition, your mathematical intuition, or your basic grasp of physics. This really shouldn't be the standard graduate E+M text; it's trying to teach a level or proficiency that 95% of physicists will never need.

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Summary: The Old Testament of Classical Electrodynamics
Review: Classical electrodynamics is the perfect archetype of what a scientific theory should be.

This textbook is, probably, the most important reference in the subject: it is, even today, the most used at the graduate level. It has -- and I think this is an almost unanimous opinion -- the most comprehensive and challenging collection of problems that one can find in a graduate level book on classical electrodynamics.

However, science is the most important achievement of humankind -- whereas religion is its worst manifestation. Therefore, science and the way science is taught can only be regarded as a work in progress. The most important characteristic about science is this: it is an open structure where, on the one hand, one cannot prove that a theory is correct but, on the other hand, it is always possible to prove that it is wrong.

Nowadays, there is a plethora of different approaches to Maxwell equations -- the theoretical framework of classical electrodynamics. In modern physics, a geometric viewpoint is simpler, clearer, and sheds light on possible unification(s) -- the ultimate scientific goal. Probably because this book is an achievement that began in 1962 (first edition), is was written and rewritten along several decades: in this third edition (1998) we are left with the impression that there are several layers of accumulation and the author cannot choose between them.

This book, having fulfilled its historic purpose, paved the way for a new geometric treatment -- either based on differential forms or on geometric algebra. Preferably, a coordinate-free (and also, a metric-free as possible) approach to the foundations -- but whith the possibility of being readily translated into the more appropriate coordinates for each particular problem.

For the foundations of classical electrodynamics my current answer would be the book by Friedrich W. Hehl and Yuri N. Obukhov. On the other hand, if the elegance of a synthesis is what we are looking for, then my current answer would be Hestenes' geometric algebra (as in the book by Chris Doran and Anthony Lasenby). However, these books cannot, in any way, replace Jackson's opus: they just point to new geometric and unified approaches; that work is still waiting to be done.

In summary: only fools or ignorants would undermine the importance of this book or the fact that it uses, by modern standards, an outdated language.