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Summary: About the way of material presentation
Review: I believe the book was much better if authors avoided their short-cut introduction to the tensor calculus. The worse such an introduction I never saw. Unfortunately this leaved a mark on a following material.The other weakness is rationalization. For example about the fact that maximum speed exists (almost on the first page). It looks like the speed limit is mathematically necessary, however it's not correct and logic of authors is flawed there. The phisical experiment only convince about existance of such a limit.
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Summary: Amazingly lucid
Review: I expected this book to be dense and incomprehensible, like I have found other of their books before, but the material is actually clearly presented, and not as terse as it may seem from a first glance. While not as comprehensive in coverage as Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics, I find it easier to follow. As far as coverage of GR goes, it's succinct: I found it very helpful to work through this book before tackling MTW.
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Summary: This Book is a Masterpiece in the Theory of Field
Review: Landau & Lifshz "Course of Theoretical Physics" is a famous and respected set of books in Physics. The vol.II, "Classical Theory of Field", is mandatory for any one seriously interested in Physics. Unfortunately, Butterworth-Heinemann, who currently prints those books in English, prints them with very poor quality. The books seem to be "printed" on old copy machines and the paper used is also a cheap one. In many pages, it is really hard to read the text, due to such poor printing.
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Summary: I blame this book of Landau
Review: on making me want to become a physicist. This book contains the best and the most original presentation of E&M, period. It also presents GR in a unique way. This book must be in every theorist's library. It will be consulted and appreciated a hundred years from now.
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Summary: Brilliance and Revelation, Incarnate
Review: Please forgive my devotianary language, but after perusing this text, one is simply overwhelmed as if subjects long obfuscated by other texts have suddenly been revealed in an almost religious epiphany. The sections devoted to relativistic electomagnetism are beyond criticism while that on General Relativity cannot be found elsewhere. Compare Weinberg or MWT, and you will see the marked difference. Highly recommended to any intermediate to advanced student who has been exposed to GR or relativistic E&M.
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Summary: A cult classic.
Review: Seriously, a cult classic. And one should beware of cults. It's a very elegant, pristine presentation. However, this is often at the expense of sweeping some messier issues under the rug. Landau's reasoning has a very fluid intuitive quality, and it is easy to float along with as long as you don't stop an notice that sometimes it doesn't really make sense. I once heard a prominent physicist say of Landau's papers "everything's wrong except the answers". An exaggeration but some truth to it.
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Summary: The ultimate treatise on classical field theory
Review: This book is simply the best treatment of the subject that can be found. Period. Having been written by Landau it comes with the guarantee that the material is presented in the most elegant, yet logically consistent manner possible. And this book delivers all of that and more. Similar to the approach in "Mechanics" the principle of least action plays a prominent role in all the theories: relativistic mechanics, electromagnetic theory and Einstein GR. As a result Landau develops the whole material through very plausible and very physical arguments, thus providing a very deep understanding for the material. To put it simply, the derivation of Maxwell's equations are stunning. I have never seen a clearer, more convincing treatment. And as we have come to expect from this series, it is almost impossible to find any flaws(except for some typos which unfortunately still exist even in the most recent reprint.) The sections on radiation of electromagnetic waves and The treatment of relativity is very consice and it is rather unfortunate that we could not get a more detailed exposition on the subject from Landau. It would have been extremely interesting to see what Landau would have had to say had he written this section after the "Golden Area for Black Holes Rsearch" As it is the discussion of Relativity from, as is to be expected, a principle of least action(Hilbert Action) is very cleverly done. Every section of the book is very physically motivated rather than purely geometric arguments. Reading this book gives you a fairly good intuitive understanding for the actual physics involved rather than simply an ability to write and solve field equations. It might be a very good idea to read some sections of their Vol1. on Mechanics before attemting this book, with special attention to Chapters 1,2 and the last chapter on the Hamiltonian treatment. But all in all, this is probably one of my favorite books both in terms of contect as well as sheer elegance of presentation. A geneuine masterpiece.
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Summary: classic! buy it while it's still in print.
Review: This is a classic. Elegant, but like all books in the series, quite dense. The first half, on the field theory associated with classical electrodynamics, is a 'must-read'. The approach mirrors that of volume 1, Mechanics, in that the dynamical equations are derived from more fundamental principles: Hamilton's principle, the principle of Lorentz invariance, and the isotropy and homogeneity of space-time. The second half, on general relativity, is becoming a bit dated with the advent of modern symplectic approaches.
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Summary: An Essential Classic Reference Work
Review: This is a magnificent book carefully crafted by two of the leading theorists of the twentieth century. If you have a basic grounding in mechanics, vector analysis and tensor analysis then much of this book will be accessible. The early parts of the book are concerned with Special Relativity and the classical electromagnetic field using the action principle and tensor form of Maxwell's Equations. Later in the book there is in depth presentation of the General Theory of Relativity. This is very much a reference book rather than one to approach these subjects for the first time. There are no exercises or problems but it is a truly masterly work and well worth the money spent upon it and time invested studying it.
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Summary: The Best Book I Have Ever Read
Review: This is the best book on gravity. General relativity can be presented in purely mathematical form with differential geometry and topology, or in physical form, using only algebra and tensor calculus. L.Landau and E.Lifshitz have chosen the second attitude, which is simpler and more useful for physicists. All derivations and constructions are clear, logical and seem to be natural. I learned general relativity from this book and this theory became my favourite, as well as this book. The part on classical electrodynamics is also very good, I like that the authors begin with special relativity and Maxwell equations (as well as the fact that in their Classical Mechanics they start from the least action principle). Although The Classical Theory of Fields was written about 60 years ago and there is no topics, such as radiation of black holes, it is in my opinion the best book for everyone who wants to learn Einstein theory of gravitation.
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