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Rating: 
Summary: Not a useful guide to electromagnetic theory
Review: Difficult book to follow, except by those who specialize in electro-magnetic theory. I thought I could improve my understanding of EM theory by reading Maxwell's original book. Definitely not. There are very few drawings, headings are not highlighted, and no examples - just one continuous gibberous.
Rating: 
Summary: More of Historical Value
Review: How can one rationally rate this book? It is impossible. Maxwell is probably one of the more underrated scientists in terms of his impact versus public knowledge. His equations of course are the bedrock of modern classical physics and electrodynamics. After the development of classical physics by Newton 200 years earlier in 1687 and the famous book by Newton on Natural Philosophy, the works of Maxwell on electricity and magnetism in 1873 were widely accepted as the "second step" so to speak in the development of physics. So here you have one of the most important book in physics. I have owned a copy of this book for many years. It is not a book to learn electromagnetic theory but to try and understand the writings of the famous scientist first hand. It is sort of like reading Darwin's "Origin of the Species". Both are brilliant works but probably have (at some time long ago) stopped being the most efficient way to learn the subject. Buy the book and read it as art and history. It is best if you have already taken courses in the subject at the equivalent of second or third year physics, and even to fourth year would be better so you can interpret the significance of some of the writings and equations. Jack in Toronto
Rating:
Summary: Electricity & Magnetism defined mathematically
Review: The book in my opinion coming from a calculus III student is very rigorous and one needs to have a firm foundation on Mathematics I would say about calc III or better to even try to read this book. So far I have just started but every page is exciting because he goes into a deep explanation of what is happening and going on physically and mathematically. Not to mentioned his work is very organized.
Rating: 
Summary: A Treatise on Electricity & Magnetism by James Clerk Maxwell
Review: The theory of electromagnetic fields was written already around 1880. This was made by Maxwell whose very original ideas are found in this treatise. To read it takes a little time as there are applied terminology and units not any more valid. However,
after carefull reading it gives out the idea of field theory. The electrostatics and electrokinematics are represented in vol 1. The theory developed Maxwell is a masterpiece of physics and will certainly have a stable position in history of natural sciences.
Rating:
Summary: Good stuff
Review: There's alot of interesting stuff here. Very informative about history yes, but it is still probably the best text on eletromagnetic theory. There is some advanced math in here. I only read part of it for a research project(its huge). From this(and the equation contained within) came the basis for all of modern physics. Maxwell's equations are inconsistent in some ways with classical mechanics. To compensate, physicists had to create relatvity and quantum mechanics. Maxwell's work was not all new stuff. He took other people's theories and summed them up in his book. He then predicted the existence of EM waves and such .
Rating:
Summary: Good stuff
Review: There's alot of interesting stuff here. Very informative about history yes, but it is still probably the best text on eletromagnetic theory. There is some advanced math in here. I only read part of it for a research project(its huge). From this(and the equation contained within) came the basis for all of modern physics. Maxwell's equations are inconsistent in some ways with classical mechanics. To compensate, physicists had to create relatvity and quantum mechanics. Maxwell's work was not all new stuff. He took other people's theories and summed them up in his book. He then predicted the existence of EM waves and such . Might I add that Gauss, Faraday, and Maxwell(don't know about ampere) were all deeply religious men!
Rating:
Summary: A classic that still is worth reading
Review: Whenever I teach a course which touches on electric or magnetic phenomena I find myself going through this book. It works well with the early chapters of Jackson, in particular, and Smythe. Maxwell knew the subject thoroughly, up to the 1870s (and much of this material has since dropped out of courses and almost out of memory), his thinking was both profound and clear, and he may well be the best writer on physics in the English language. His proofs are economical and elegant. Oh yes - this book is still a good reference for the treatment of spherical harmonics and multipole expansions in Cartesian coordinates.
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