Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for those knowing QFT. Difficult for new learners
Review: A superb reference book, and one that those with some grounding in quantum field theory can learn many good things from. However, I believe students trying to learn what many consider a difficult subject will have a tough go of it. Being so brilliant, Weinberg may have trouble (not so rare in physics)teaching at the level of the students, rather than from the level of the accomplished. Nevertheless, this is a book everyone in the field should have on his/her bookshelf.
Rating: 
Summary: The Final Word
Review: Even though i call the book "The Final Word", I must say that the book has some weaknesses. Firstly, the point of view is very personal and the reader may not like it (even though i like it). Secondly, too little emphasis is given to the Wilsonian way of thinking about quantum field theory. Thirdly, one cannot think about something like the monopole-monopole scattering as being descibed by an interaction as being built out of monopole fields which do not appear in the Lagrangian. Also very less emphasis is given to the fact that the canonical and the functional formalisms define QFT beyond the perturbation theory. In spite of all this i would say that nobody could have written such a masterpiece. It IS the final word.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Brilliant
Review: For those who are receptive to its charms, this book is simply indispensible to any high energy physicist. This book is not terribly "intuitive"(in the sense that things are derived heuristically just to the point that the result seeems plausible), nor does it take a purely mathematical standpoint, emphasizing the unbending rigour of all proofs. Instead, it offers something far, far more valuable to any physicist; namely it offers truly profound physical insight into the fundamental principles of nature. This book is so chock full of brilliant profound ideas that it seems as if Weinberg put into this book almost all of the insights he has had over the course of his long, productive, and Nobel Prize winning career. He offers a truly logical presentation of particle physics, starting from the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics (superposition principle especially) and the principle of invariance under the Poincare group modulo time and spatial inversion, as well as the principle that distant measurements do not affect each other, and derives, with a minimum of simplifying assumption, the whole, wonderful edifice of quantum field theory. This set of volumes contains almost all that we know about QFT, but somehow, magically, it is not encyclopedic; it is instead refreshingly original and, as I have said before, truly profound. Also, unlike many other QFT texts, it very clearly points out how the assumptions of the theory could be weakened, and also gives an indication of what sorts of theories come from these modified assumptions. The whole book is simply fascinating, but I found the chapter on general renormalization theory particularly enlightening, especially the section on "nonrenormlizable" theories. I learned, in a particularly clear, inspiring way, that these theories are not any more or less renormalizable than standard model theories, when all terms alowed by symmetry are included in the Lagrangian. Although these theories might seem as if they have little power of prediction (after all, there are an infinite number of parameters to the theory), but in fact Weinberg argues that the nonrenormalizalbe interactions are strongly suppressed at low momenta, so it is possible for low energies to create an effective perturbation theory, which yield in this regime astonishingly precise prediction. On the other hand, Weinberg is quick to point out that for large enough energies, this perturbation expansion simply does not make sense, and that THIS is the reason why quantum gravity based on the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian makes no sense for energies at the scale of unification.
Although this book is truly wonderful, I would not recommend reading it as an introduction to QFT. This book is simply too intense and profound for the uninitiated. Instead, I would recommend as a first introduction Ryder's fine text, which yields enough insights to give the reader a taste of the ideas behing QFT but not so many that the reader is overwhelmed at first, followed by Peskin-Schroeder, which gives the student all of the tools that he/she will need for almost any QFT calculation.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Brilliant
Review: For those who are receptive to its charms, this book is simply indispensible to any high energy physicist. This book is not terribly "intuitive"(in the sense that things are derived heuristically just to the point that the result seeems plausible), nor does it take a purely mathematical standpoint, emphasizing the unbending rigour of all proofs. Instead, it offers something far, far more valuable to any physicist; namely it offers truly profound physical insight into the fundamental principles of nature. This book is so chock full of brilliant profound ideas that it seems as if Weinberg put into this book almost all of the insights he has had over the course of his long, productive, and Nobel Prize winning career. He offers a truly logical presentation of particle physics, starting from the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics (superposition principle especially) and the principle of invariance under the Poincare group modulo time and spatial inversion, as well as the principle that distant measurements do not affect each other, and derives, with a minimum of simplifying assumption, the whole, wonderful edifice of quantum field theory. This set of volumes contains almost all that we know about QFT, but somehow, magically, it is not encyclopedic; it is instead refreshingly original and, as I have said before, truly profound. Also, unlike many other QFT texts, it very clearly points out how the assumptions of the theory could be weakened, and also gives an indication of what sorts of theories come from these modified assumptions. The whole book is simply fascinating, but I found the chapter on general renormalization theory particularly enlightening, especially the section on "nonrenormlizable" theories. I learned, in a particularly clear, inspiring way, that these theories are not any more or less renormalizable than standard model theories, when all terms alowed by symmetry are included in the Lagrangian. Although these theories might seem as if they have little power of prediction (after all, there are an infinite number of parameters to the theory), but in fact Weinberg argues that the nonrenormalizalbe interactions are strongly suppressed at low momenta, so it is possible for low energies to create an effective perturbation theory, which yield in this regime astonishingly precise prediction. On the other hand, Weinberg is quick to point out that for large enough energies, this perturbation expansion simply does not make sense, and that THIS is the reason why quantum gravity based on the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian makes no sense for energies at the scale of unification.
Although this book is truly wonderful, I would not recommend reading it as an introduction to QFT. This book is simply too intense and profound for the uninitiated. Instead, I would recommend as a first introduction Ryder's fine text, which yields enough insights to give the reader a taste of the ideas behing QFT but not so many that the reader is overwhelmed at first, followed by Peskin-Schroeder, which gives the student all of the tools that he/she will need for almost any QFT calculation.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Brilliant
Review: For those who are receptive to its charms, this book is simply indispensible to any high energy physicist. This book is not terribly "intuitive"(in the sense that things are derived heuristically just to the point that the result seeems plausible), nor does it take a purely mathematical standpoint, emphasizing the unbending rigour of all proofs. Instead, it offers something far, far more valuable to any physicist; namely it offers truly profound physical insight into the fundamental principles of nature. This book is so chock full of brilliant profound ideas that it seems as if Weinberg put into this book almost all of the insights he has had over the course of his long, productive, and Nobel Prize winning career. He offers a truly logical presentation of particle physics, starting from the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics (superposition principle especially) and the principle of invariance under the Poincare group modulo time and spatial inversion, as well as the principle that distant measurements do not affect each other, and derives, with a minimum of simplifying assumption, the whole, wonderful edifice of quantum field theory. This set of volumes contains almost all that we know about QFT, but somehow, magically, it is not encyclopedic; it is instead refreshingly original and, as I have said before, truly profound. Also, unlike many other QFT texts, it very clearly points out how the assumptions of the theory could be weakened, and also gives an indication of what sorts of theories come from these modified assumptions. The whole book is simply fascinating, but I found the chapter on general renormalization theory particularly enlightening, especially the section on "nonrenormlizable" theories. I learned, in a particularly clear, inspiring way, that these theories are not any more or less renormalizable than standard model theories, when all terms alowed by symmetry are included in the Lagrangian. Although these theories might seem as if they have little power of prediction (after all, there are an infinite number of parameters to the theory), but in fact Weinberg argues that the nonrenormalizalbe interactions are strongly suppressed at low momenta, so it is possible for low energies to create an effective perturbation theory, which yield in this regime astonishingly precise prediction. On the other hand, Weinberg is quick to point out that for large enough energies, this perturbation expansion simply does not make sense, and that THIS is the reason why quantum gravity based on the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian makes no sense for energies at the scale of unification.
Although this book is truly wonderful, I would not recommend reading it as an introduction to QFT. This book is simply too intense and profound for the uninitiated. Instead, I would recommend as a first introduction Ryder's fine text, which yields enough insights to give the reader a taste of the ideas behing QFT but not so many that the reader is overwhelmed at first, followed by Peskin-Schroeder, which gives the student all of the tools that he/she will need for almost any QFT calculation.
Rating:
Summary: Demanding but very readable book.
Review: I like this book because it explains everything from first principles to the most advanced results, and this is really the best way to master such a subject. Moreover, Weinberg managed to give full proofs of all intermediate steps using only maths available to the average physicist. I don't think it is a pedagogic text, like e.g. Peskin-Schroeder, it is too demanding at some places (however the most advanced sections that can be skipped at first reading are indicated by footnotes). Paradoxically, this can make the reader's task easier because he/she gets better equipped to tackle the difficult problems, and the systematic development does not tolerate any hiatus. The contrast is in the generality and completeness: Peskin-Schroeder discuss the representations of Lorentz group only in the context of spin 1/2. Weinberg discusses them in full generality. P-S do not explain canonical quantisation of the EM field; Weinberg explains it for any kind of field. On the other hand, the first QED process computation (Compton scattering) only appears at page 362 (page 131 in Peskin-Schroeder), and it appears as a unique example, while Peskin-Schroeder teaches you how to compute any known process. So this book is more focussed on the inner working and motivations or foundations of the theory than Peskin-Schroeder or other similar books, which have applications to particle physics in mind.
Rating:
Summary: extremely thorough
Review: In this book and the others in the series, Weinberg bends over backwards to make sure every line is justified so the reader does not have to stop and puzzle over logical gaps, caveats left unmentioned, etc. Also, typically Weinberg will prove the general case of a result, instead of sticking with a simple example, or referring to the literature. It should be added that these same characteristics give the book an emphasis which isn't quite suitable for a first introduction to qft; however, any serious student will want to read the series.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant but hard, a book for advanced students only
Review: Let me start by stating the essentials: 1. If you are a grad student in theoretical physics or you already have your Ph.D, buy this book! If you are an amateur trying to figure out how the universe works this book will simply break your heart because you will understant none of it. 2. The book is beautifully printed by Cambridge University Press. You don't see this sort of quality often these days, when the European-style el cheapo paper back has become the norm. 3. It is an expensive book, but Amazon has some bargain re-sellers. I bought my copy at a substantial discount. It was supposedly second-hand but had obviously never even been breathed on. And it got here in two days. 4. This is a book mainly about formalism and mathematics. If you get about half-way through you will eventually reach some discussion of experimental results but this is not the emphasis here. 5. Finally, on a personal note. I am a retired theoretical physicist and about forty years ago I even wrote a paper on quantum electrodynamics. So I thought that maybe I could attempt to read this book. I know the words, Hermitian operators, Lorentz transformations, stuff like that. Yet I'm having a very hard time getting through it. After about a month of trying I'm about to give up. I can read chapters 1 and most of 2, but after that it becomes too hard for me. One problem is that it is not often explained what the point of all that complicated mathematics really is. It certainly does not give me a better understanding of the physical world although I suppose it would do that if I persevered long enough. That's why I gave it only 4 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting but hard to follow for graduate student
Review: Quite often incomprehensible(I'm a graduate student). Not that it's mathematically clear either. But he covers lots of interesting topics. I liked his group theory part best.
Rating:
Summary: A Modern Classic
Review: Taken together, these three volumes on QFT are comprehensive, clear, and logical in presentation, written with Weinberg's customary brilliant flair. (I felt the same way about his text on general relativity - "Gravitation and Cosmology" - when it came out.) One would think that the man who won a physics Nobel in the 70's should be rather out of date. Well, Weinberg is one exception to the rule. He's really current and abreast of the latest research on supersymmetry and strings. Quite a feat. In the preface (not available here as a sample page) Weinberg apologizes for the lack of mathematical rigor which may "bring tears to the mathematically inclined" readers. It's true, there aren't many problems to solve - though those he does provide are carefully chosen and will give you quite a workout. On the other hand, these three books are not for the novice or the faint of heart. Those who are not well grounded in the necessary prerequisites like Feynman diagrams would do well to brush up before they tackle Weinberg. An excellent resource, both as text and as reference, with just the right balance of technical sophistication and philosophical insight. It will set the standards for all similar works for years to come.
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