Electromagnetic Fields, 2nd Edition

Rating:
Summary: Not the greatest, but respectable.
Review: ... one might note that this book is developed in such a waythat makes it quite modular. At first Wangsness develops an examplecompletely, often leading to daunting equations. This is wonderful. However if you want to pick and choose a few key assumptions, and developed a more specific case, you can do that with Wagness' help, as well.

Some of the problems are tedious, and void of instruction. Oftentimes, one has to result to digging through the chapter just to find the correct equation, leaving you with no physical intuition of what is really happening. If a professor drew up their own problems to accompany this text, you'd definitely have a winner. END

Rating:
Summary: Nicely done.
Review: I believe there are basically two breeds in the world of EM textbooks. One is obviously J.D. Jackson and the other E.M. Purcell. If Griffiths follows Purcell's approach, I'd say Wangsness is in the style of Jackson (of course no direct comparison is possible, Jackson does not really discuss statics anyway).

Wangness is very much _detailed_ and provides ample examples, many of them kindly worked out. I am not sure if this book provides strong background in vector calculus, though. I always had troubles getting some geometrical intuitions. I guess I have learned more from Purcell in this respect.

Of course, there are many other great books such as Lorrain/Corson, Feynman volume 2 and such. Should be nice to look at those as well.

Rating:
Summary: Griffiths this, Griffiths that.
Review: One-stop shopping for the diligent reader. Begins with a great lesson in vector calculus, then moves through E&M. Doesn't gloss over the mathematical details, and yet is remarkably self-contained. The reader doesn't need a pile of books on the side to figure out the math steps. Every equation has a pointer to its predecessors so that you can trace back to the very beginning if you wish.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent practical and accessible reference.
Review: This book is indeed very modular, if you have any previous EM training and the required mathematical skills you won't have any difficulty using this as a practical, working reference. As a consequence of the modularity, there is some repetition of the information but it's a small price to pay for the completeness of the individual modules.

One of my favorite features of the writing is the clear references to previous results making it easy to review the references (and completely eliminates any need to search the index). I far prefer this to the usual method to make only vague references to previously developed concepts and is one reason why I find this is a good reference work.

Overall, the level is more advanced than Cook though better written. Some of the development of the material is rather novel (e.g., Amperes Law) and considerably more approachable than corresponding works by Smythe (ugh), Peck, or Stratton. I recommend Feynmans lectures in addition to this book. I find the two complement each other quite nicely.