Remarkable for its scope and authority this text offers a new vision of the 'theoretical
minimum' of classical physics that all physicists should know a vision that I hope will
revitalize the curricula of many physics departments. On my own shelf it will replace half a
dozen dog-eared reference texts.--Scott Tremaine Institute for Advanced Study In an era of
fragmentation and specialization Thorne and Blandford have given us an audacious and splendid
grand unification of classical physics using geometry and space-time as synthesizing
principles. Complicated fields as diverse as optics elasticity and plasma physics fall to
their masterful pedagogy.--William H. Press University of Texas at Austin Comprehensive
concise and coherent this is a marvelous summary of the essence of classical physics
somewhat reminiscent of the classic texts of Landau and Lifshitz and an essential part of any
physicist's toolkit. Classical physics is not 'old' physics it contains many of the most
interesting challenges to our understanding of nature and it stands (as in this book) in
consistent juxtaposition with quantum physics. This book includes many interesting and often
difficult problems and it will particularly benefit students in the astrophysical and related
sciences.--David Stevenson Caltech This is an excellent resource for students and researchers
seeking introductions to important subjects neglected by most modern physics curricula.--Jeremy
Goodman Princeton University This text is a tour de force. I cannot overemphasize how big a
contribution to teaching it will be. It is also likely to instantly become a desk reference for
a large part of the research physics community.--Steinn Sigurdsson Pennsylvania State
University
