It's not perfect. In particular:
- It CANNOT be used for an introduction. It assumes a very good understanding of the physics of E&M, as presented in an undergraduate course.
- It is NOT intended for self-study. It was developed in the context of a lecture course, and this is what it supports.
- The theoretical treatment does leave irritating holes in some presentations.
- For some topics, the approach is not the most elegant.
- The problems are hard. The problems are damn hard.

Nonetheless, it covers an enormous amount of material in a way that can be referred to later (post-course), including mathematical tools and explicit formulas. This is quite useful, once you have suffered through it.

If you want to LEARN ABOUT E&M, you can study other books, many of which have been mentioned by other reviews. But if you really need to be GROUNDED in E&M, you will probably have to study this book: you probably won't be given a choice by your professor. This doesn't mean you can't find other sources to supplement the presentation. It's probably a good idea, anyway, not to think you're going to be able to find everything in one book.


Have your Arfken ready beside you   February 6, 2002
22 out of 22 found this review helpful

I am currently taking the second semester of a full-year course in graduate electrodynamics. We've been using Jackson as our main textbook, but the professor sometimes use his own collection of problems as our homeworks. I've just realize why he did it, some of the problems in Jackson are extremely difficult.

However, I agree with another reviewer who stated that once you are armed with full mathematical apparatus, the book would be a gold mine of electrodynamics. My own method of study involves derivations of formulas, following the discussion in Jackson. This is really hardwork, but it worth the effort.

For those who are mathematically deficient, I suggest you to have your Arfken ready beside you (G.B. Arfken, H.J. Weber, Mathematical Methods for Physicist, 5th edition, Academic Press, ISBN 0120598256). As far as I know, this is the only book still in printing that provide almost all mathematical tools required for Jackson: Vector analysis, coordinate systems, tensor analysis, Lorentz group, partial differential equations and separations of variables, Sturm-Liouville theory, Green functions, Laplace, Helmholtz, modified Helmholtz (wave) equations, Bessel functions, Legendre functions (including the second solution and vector spherical harmonics), Fourier series and transform, and many more.

Jackson and Arfken are really pair, you can't learn Jackson without Arfken.

For those whose lack physical insights and need to brush up your undergraduate electromagnetism, I recommended one and only one textbook: D.J. Griffiths Introduction to Electrodynamics. I compared the discussion in Griffiths and Jackson, and I surprised to find that there are some indentical choices of topics like Jefimenko's equations, potentials and fields, development of Maxwell tensor, even L.V. Lorenz gauge condition ! I suspect that Jackson and Griffiths have collaborated during the writings of their third edition books.
No wonder those two books dominated Physics Departments in the world.

I'm currently waiting for Schwinger's Classical Electrodynamics, I read about good comments about it. I'll write more after I compared Jackson with Schwinger.


A reasonably competent grad student's view...   October 5, 2000
22 out of 23 found this review helpful

I recently completed an grad E&M course using this book. I must say I was intimidated at first, but as I was using it, I became more and more impressed with the utility of the information and the examples. THOROUGLY understanding the examples (especially chaps. 2 & 3) is crucial to understanding later material.

Our Prof. introduced the course as a math course disguised as a physics course. She wasn't kidding. Previous reviewers have indicated that a STRONG mathematical background is helpful to get the most out of the book. I wouldn't say that my math background is significantly strong. Actually, true to our instructor's word, I learned a great deal of math through the course.

What I did find helpful was using D.J. Griffiths' E&M text (my undergraduate text) as a supplement to reinforce my understanding of the physics involved, then I could "see" what the mathematics describes.

What this book is: It is an elegant, sophisticated presentation of one of the more difficult topics in science.

What this book is NOT: It is most definitely not a self-study guide or a means for casual learning of E&M.

The elegance is reflected through Prof. Jackson's economy of expression. The formulas presented are certainly useful for solving problems (also, the limitations and effective boundaries of the equations are clearly documented).

I must admit that I was very fortunate to have a Prof. who understood the book at many levels, was willing to "fill in the gaps" in the terse derivations, and dilligently coached us in solving the problems. This is critical as there are many hidden (but useful) "tricks" used both in the derivations and in the problem solutions. Without this kind of "coach", only a few gifted geniuses would ever be able to get the most out of this book.


a classic work   October 2, 2000
Tobias James Osborne (Brisbane, Queensland Australia)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

Jackson's book would have to be one of the best texts on advanced classical physics. Jackson balances the (sometimes) involved derivations with clear physical insight. The material covered in this book is crafted so as to be useful as a reference for further study in advanced physics.

Of particular note is the classical derivations and solutions of some of the various scattering problems of particle physics. These solutions provide the basic classical background to allow comparison with quantum field theoretic effects.

Throughout the book there are a large number of well crafted exercises, few of which are trivial. The exercises provide the reader with some very interesting techniques for solution of classical problems.

The chapters on special relativity are concise and crystal clear. They are often cited by other authors and constitute an excellent quick reference for most relativistic phenomena.

It would be pointless to study using this book if the reader does not have a thorough understanding of fundamental physics and the elementary techniques of applied mathematics. Jackson assumes a basic level of maturity and does not waste time spoon feeding the reader.

In summary, Jackson is an excellent book not only as a reference but also as a substantial treatise on most of the electrodynamics that will be required for research in physics and applied mathematics. It will reward the reader with a vast number of problem solving techniques and physical insight. It paves the way perfectly for future study in quantum field theory and particle physics.


Jackson Fan Club member!!   October 4, 2002
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Initially, I despised this book. From peer reviews, this book is difficult, opaque, a supposedly random conglomeration of nth order Spherical Harmonics, Bessel fns etc.....
Well, this book does live up to its single reputation - difficult. But reading through the text not once, but twice or more times, I eventually get the idea. Furthermore, the text in my opinion, tries to word concepts as precisely as possible. I can't imagine how much attention Dr. Jackson gave to the little details, which is essential in sending the right message to the readers.
Therefore, I feel that this book is exceptional. The author has a strong sense of responsibility on the concepts he would like to convey to the reader.
Finally, concerning the homework problems in this book (thorn to many readers), I found out that if one actually reads Jackson carefully (not randomly browsing through looking for equations) and understanding, he gives hints to many problems. There are some problems that are really hard, but usually its due to the complexity in the math, therefore a math reference or two (e.g. Arfken and Weber) would be very helpful.
I still can't do the problems...