Rating: 
Summary: A book for the next decade
Review: Excelent book bringing the subject of Phys Chem to the state of art of last years of the XX century. While chem text books are still 40 year behind the phisics one (e.g. Callen, Reif) McQuarrie first try seems succesful on bringing Phys Chem to what is really done on the universities labs. It is one of the best texts on Quantum theory and spectroscopy for chemists I've read since Pauling & Wilson but it fails when it moves to thermodynamics in a discontinuous way, had McQuarrie followed Callen, for example, this book would be a revolutionary text and not an evolutionary one on thermodynamics. I hope a second edition will sane this and, also, bring a, may be, two volume paperback student edition. From this perspective I'm sure this will be the text book for the next decade, replacing other like Atkins that choosed, in the last editions, to replace content by figures.
Rating:
Summary: The best textbook I have ever had to read
Review: First of all, let's get something straight: I am not usually one to recommed textbooks, neither am I am chemistry major who may get perverse pleasure out of reading a textbook.
I am a chemical engineering major who was required to take this class for graduation. As the professor was less than stellar, I depended heavily on this book to pass the class. I found that the book is an enjoyable read. The topics are presented clearly and concisely, without undue wordiness or un-helpful examples. The material presented is excrutiatingly difficult and I believe that the authors did the very best job possible with the material at hand.
In short, don't buy it for fun, but if you are taking physical chemistry, this is a must.
Rating:
Summary: The best textbook I have ever had to read
Review: First of all, let's get something straight: I am not usually one to recommed textbooks, neither am I am chemistry major who may get perverse pleasure out of reading a textbook.
I am a chemical engineering major who was required to take this class for graduation. As the professor was less than stellar, I depended heavily on this book to pass the class. I found that the book is an enjoyable read. The topics are presented clearly and concisely, without undue wordiness or un-helpful examples. The material presented is excrutiatingly difficult and I believe that the authors did the very best job possible with the material at hand.
In short, don't buy it for fun, but if you are taking physical chemistry, this is a must.
Rating:
Summary: THE Textbook of Physical Chemistry
Review: I had the good fortune of having Donald McQuarrie as a Professor for 5 Physical Chemistry courses while I was an undergrad at Indiana University (2 undergrad semsters and 3 graduate semesters). (He is now at UC Davis). His clarity and skills of being a classroom teacher was awesome. In the intervening years, I had forgotten a lot of what I had known in PChem - in spite of having gotten a PhD in the subject from Cal Berkeley. (Industry does that to one). Now that my interests coincide with relearning the subject, I was turned off by the textbooks that I had. In searching for a text, I noticed McQuarrie had written one. I decided that it was definately worth checking out. Upon reading it - it became obvious that all those years of teaching the subject had paid off. The clarity in approaching the subject was set to print! What is great about his text is: 1) Totally self contained. The math needed for a particular subject is put into interleafing chapters on a "just in time basis." I can see how that might be a turnoff for someone whose math skills are sharp, advanced and current. On the otherhand, for folks that need a refresher (like myself) or had limited exposure to the subject - It is right there, right now, no hunting around needed. 2) Comprehensive. YOU DO NOT NEED ANOTHER TEXT. If you have the misfortune of having a class where the Professor has chosen another text this would be THE supplemenatry text (though at [price] new there would be an 'ouch' factor). 3) BREAKS PARADIGMS. If you look at almost any other text on Physical Chemistry (Barrow or Atkins or .....), the Table of Contents is identical - the subject is taught in the order the historical discoveries where made. It is like in every generation the leading Physical Chemists took the old texts and APPENDED the latest and greatest to it. Guess What! That is not neccessary the Best way to LEARN (or in my case relearn) the subject. It is not neccesarily the method best suited for focusing on what is most applicable and utilized currently. McQuarrie's approach was a top/down rethinking of how to teach the subject. The focus as the subject indicates "A molecular Approach". While there is historical value in seeing how the pioneers took prinicples of thermodynamics -discovered when physicists scoffed at the very notion of molecules and then were able to show (a la Boltzman) that if one starts with molecules - one can derive thermodynamics from it. It is actually much more streamlined to learn it the opposite - focus on the notion of molecules first and foremost. This is the text of PChem for the 21st century. As an aside, McQuarrie pays homage to the pioneers by having a Scientist highlighted per chapter. All in all a great text from a great teacher!
Rating: 
Summary: It got me through P-Chem
Review: I had the unfortunate experience of learning P-Chem from both this text and Atkins' "Physical Chemistry", and I must say, this is the superior text for those of us who are not particularly gifted in the subject.
McQuarrie offers a different approach to the subject by not presenting the material in the historical fashion, which is relieving. Also, the text is punctuated with various "Math Chapters", which serve as refreshers for the upcoming material. This aspect is nice because, let's face it, not all of us use anything beyond algebra on a daily basis.
The text is also presented in a rather compartmentalized fashion, so that a professor who wishes to begin a course at chapter 16 can do so without requiring that the material from the previous 15 chapters be rigorously understood.
Rating:
Summary: The Only P-Chem Textbook You'll Need
Review: One of the most emerging fear of P-Chem students is the rigid dificulty and obscureness of the mathematical background. Many textbooks have unfortunately overseen the importance of treating the mathematics and establishing link between the mathematics and the physical interpretation of chemical phenomenon. McQuarrie's text addresses and amends this problem in a brilliant. Difficult mathematical concepts are integrated along with the appropriate topics and are presented in a concise fashion. The first half of the text discusses topics in quantum chemistry while the rest deals with thermodynamics, statistical mechanics,and kinetics. All the equations are backed by clear explanation and mathematical derivation. When I took quantum chemistry (the first course of the P-Chem sequence), we used McQuarrie and it worked just fine in explaining all the topics covered in lecture.s (such as spectroscopy, perturbation theory, etc). Unfortunately professor from the second semester (thermodynamics) decided to abandon McQuarrie and used instead Atkins' Physical Chemistry, which is absolutely not worth the money and very confusing and difficult to follow. I kept the McQuarrie book and used that as study aids and reference, whereas I trashed Atkins as soon as the semester was over (well, I immediately sold it back). McQuarrie is the only P-Chem book you'll find useful and clear.
Rating:
Summary: The Only P-Chem Textbook You'll Need
Review: One of the most emerging fear of P-Chem students is the rigid dificulty and obscureness of the mathematical background. Many textbooks have unfortunately overseen the importance of treating the mathematics and establishing link between the mathematics and the physical interpretation of chemical phenomenon. McQuarrie's text addresses and amends this problem in a brilliant. Difficult mathematical concepts are integrated along with the appropriate topics and are presented in a concise fashion. The first half of the text discusses topics in quantum chemistry while the rest deals with thermodynamics, statistical mechanics,and kinetics. All the equations are backed by clear explanation and mathematical derivation. When I took quantum chemistry (the first course of the P-Chem sequence), we used McQuarrie and it worked just fine in explaining all the topics covered in lecture.s (such as spectroscopy, perturbation theory, etc). Unfortunately professor from the second semester (thermodynamics) decided to abandon McQuarrie and used instead Atkins' Physical Chemistry, which is absolutely not worth the money and very confusing and difficult to follow. I kept the McQuarrie book and used that as study aids and reference, whereas I trashed Atkins as soon as the semester was over (well, I immediately sold it back). McQuarrie is the only P-Chem book you'll find useful and clear.
Rating:
Summary: innovative and articulate
Review: Simon and McQuarrie have succeeded in upbraiding the traditional approach to introductory physical chemistry (thermodynamics first, quantum chemistry second) and explaining chemistry the way it ought to be taught, with the fundamentals of quantum theory and molecular dynamics first. The prose and conceptual progression are accessible to the average undergraduate, yet the book covers, in detail, a spectrum of contemporary topics that almost challenge the scope of a physcial chemistry text. It seems that the precedent for future physical chemistry texts has been set and the drab, awkward Atkins text can be abandoned
Rating:
Summary: A Shining Light in an otherwise Terrifying world...
Review: Starting P-Chem in college was quite a frightening experience since people before you taut it to be the end of your social existence. Well, it turns out that my experience wasn't that bad, and I owe that fact almost entirely to this book. My professor desided to simply throw numbers and partial derivatives of various thermodynamic or quantum equations at us without any explination. McQuarrie's text book picked up where she left off. His book explains the physical events and then offers a mathematical reasoning behind it which follows well. There were parts I felt where his explination was a bit concise, when a bit more verbosity was warranted especially in the thermodynamics section, but besides that, the molecular approach is an excellent way to begin learning about these rather abstract and certainly abstruse topics. To any student or person interested in this book, I HIGHLY Recommend also puchasing the solutions manual to the problems in this book. The solutions manual is expensive, but it answers ALL the problems in the end chapters, and can save your sanity when you are at a loss trying to answer some of them.
Rating:
Summary: A very thourough treatment of quantum mechanics
Review: The University of Pittsburgh used this text my p-chem I class, which deals with quantum physics. This book and the associated answer manual have a wealth of information, and I think this will be a great addition to my library for the years to come. I noticed, however, that the highly detail mathematical derivations of key equations often came at the expense of explanations or illustrations. I like mathematical rigor, but it helps to explain the significance of the mathematical models, and this book could do a much better job. Rather than fishing for the right information in McQuarrie, I found myself going to the Atkins text to help ease me into McQuarrie. This book has great staying power due to its great detail and scope of topics, and I'm treasuring my copy, but it has flaws as a beginning undergraduate text.
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