Subatomic Physics (2nd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Good introductory text to subject
Review: I used this book in an undergraduate nuclear physics course. We studied under a working theoretical physicist who uses quantum field theory pretty much everyday, I suppose. I thought the book was pretty good, and had good physical insights. The math derivations always seemed to be pretty transparent so as not to obscure the physics behind it. The problems seemed a little terse, so the instructor expanded some and added some of his own on the assignments. The book assumes a level of competency in quantum mechanics which may not be there for all readers. Also, I thought that the authors didn't highlight the most important points sufficiently. Nevertheless, I think the book is very good, and is a nice introduction to the subject.

Rating:
Summary: ehh...
Review: My problem with this book is essentially that I don't really see much reason for such a book. Perhaps it was just the class I took using this book (a total waste of time -- we spent more time looking at whether nuclear reactions were allowed based on charge conservation than anything else), but it seems to me that if you're going to study subatomic physics, you might as well skip straight to quantum field theory and actually get a feel for what is going on as opposed to studying the surface of the subject without ever getting into (what seems to me to be) the meat of it.