Rating: 
Summary: The Ultimate Reference for Epidemiologic Methods
Review: The first edition of this book was a superb, tightly written mongraph, but it was a single-authored work written in the 1980s and needed to be updated. This new edition seems to be intended as a more comprehensive reference work on epidemiologic methods, adding a dozen authors and covering many topics that were not in the first edition, such as reproductive epidemiology and infectious disease epidemiology. Some readers might find it to be too detailed and broad to be easily digested in a short time. Nevertheless, as a reference guide, I don't think that it has any rival. The first 100 pages or so are a clearly rewritten update of the core material from the first edition. The middle chapters, which are new and mostly written by Greenland, are a little slow-going but are worth the effort if you want a cutting-edge insight into epidemiologic methods. The final section, with many contributors, presents the specific methodology of nearly every area of epidemiologic research. Overall, this book is essential if you are serious about understanding epidemiology.
Rating: 
Summary: avoid this book like the plague!
Review: The trouble with this book is that the first author (Rothman) has convinced many epidemiologists that he is an authority on statistics when he is not. His crusade against adjustment for multiple comparisons has lead a large number of epidemiology students (and faculty) far astray from accepted statistical practice. The entire book becomes suspect because of Rothman's anti-statistics bias. Try the books by Friis & Sellers, MacMahon & Pugh, Clayton & Hills or the classic text 'Epidemiologic Research' by Klienbaum, Kupper & Morgenstern. Since many epidemiology faculty still require this text for their courses - try borrowing it from a classmate and purchase 'Epidemiologic Research' instead. You'll be glad you did!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, great resource.
Review: This book has proven immensely useful in my work. Although the text can be difficult to read at times, its thoroughness is nonetheless outstanding. It is clearly the best book regarding epidemiologic methods, particularly for those with a basic epidemiologic background seeking to advance their skills.
Rating:
Summary: A major disappointment
Review: This book is indeed known among the students of epidemiology as one of the worst ever. The text is very difficult to understand and the whole book is extremely disorganized without any coherence. Some chapters that are not written by the editors are somewhat better, such as ecologic studies, but those by Drs. Rothamn and Greenland are sometimes essentially useless. It is so frustrating to see that the 2nd edition of this book is even much more complicated and disorganized than the first one. To all those who need good epidemiology textbooks, there are many more available, this should be the very last choice.
Rating:
Summary: The best and greatest Epidemiology book ever
Review: This edition is the best Epi book ever. Even though it is quite complicated and sometimes difficult to fully understand, it does provide a state-of-the-art knowledge and vision into Epidemiologic Methods. The book is the great reference to Epidemiologists or ones who would like to know Epi methods for their research and other purposes. Thanks to Dr. Rothman and Dr. Greenland's clear minds and great contributions from many other authors, the book is much updated and more comprehensive than the first edition. You definitely should have one on the shelf.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written with poor thought process
Review: This is a poorly written book.
Definitely it is not for students.
It's jumping from one subject to another, then turn to
others all the time. You could easily get lost and
frustrated to follow.
Usually this sort of thing happens when the authors do not
know what they are writing.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written with poor thought process
Review: This is a poorly written book.
Definitely it is not for students.
It's jumping from one subject to another, then turn to
others all the time. You could easily get lost and
frustrated to follow.
Usually this sort of thing happens when the authors do not
know what they are writing.
Rating:
Summary: Buy "Epidumbiology Without Numbers for Dummies" Instead!
Review: This is the wurst ridden epidumbiology book I ever red. Us epidumbiologists don't need to know all this hard stuff. We need more ez 2 read books with short wurds and no equations and no Greak letters. Buks that tell us in simpleton terms we ken under stand some wrong weighs to do our studies and sum wrong wheys to annulize our data and sam wrong waze to interprut our resultz. But most of all we need bigger pictures to color with our crayons. The only gud coloring pictures in this buk are those stoopid Rothman's Pies. But I keep going outside the lines.
Rating:
Summary: modern epidemiology
Review: Very disimilar to the first edition (unfortunately). The second edition is an expanded and more complete text than the first edition. However, it is hopelessly disjointed and it would appear that Greenland simply wrote without regard to Rothman's structured content and "pasted" his text at random. I would not even bother with this text. The confusison and frustration is too great. Attempts should be made to secure a copy of the first edition.
Rating: 
Summary: The standard textbook in the field
Review: With all the pros and cons of an advanced-level book written by many authors, this work is widely considered the standard text in the field. As a professor of mine says, every epidemiologist should have it on her/his bookshelf.
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