Principles of Chemistry

By Harriet McGregor

Read a few pages, and you'll see what all the excitement is about. Intended primarily for college freshmen, this exceptionally lucid, carefully paced, elegantly designed, well-illustrated volume will appeal to curious readers of any age who want to know more about the innermost workings of the "central science." In the words of another advance reviewer, the Munowitz book "reveals the beauty of chemistry in an unusual, graceful, narrative style. Compared with standard textbooks, it is poetic." This book is unusual in several respects. Perhaps the most obvious, at first glance, is the distinctive pattern of white and gray stripes that appear when you view its pages edge-on. The striped pattern is a superficial manifestation of a novel's internal structure. Unlike a standard chemistry textbook, in which each chapter is fragmented into a hodgepodge of disparate parts--text, boxed features, worked exercises, solved and unsolved problems, in-chapter and end-of-chapter summaries, miscellaneous decorative elements-- each chapter in Principles of Chemistry has a much simpler organization: an uninterrupted narrative core (white pages), followed by a Review and Guide to Problems section (gray pages). In short: principles first, then practice. The tutorial, problem-solving sections at the ends of the chapters amount, in effect, to a built-in study guide, thus obviating the need for a separate volume of this type. In addition, the long run of predominantly white pages at the back of the book consists, for the most part, of an unusually complete set of appendices devoted to such important matters as nomenclature, mathematics, assorted tables, and a glossary. Taken just by themselves, then, the white pages that constitute the first, narrative parts of the book's 21 chapters add up to a fairly modest-sized book-within-a-book-- at least by comparison with other texts for the introductory general chemistry course. And what a book it is As the reviewers' comments quoted elsewhere attest, the novel intrachapter organization of the Munowitz text contributes to another of this book's distinctive features: its remarkably coherent "story line." The main driving force here, though, is the extraordinary power and clarity of the author's writing by far the most remarked-upon special attribute of this book. Just crack it open anywhere and start reading, and you'll see what all the fuss is about.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393972887
• ISBN13: 9780393972887
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 1616 Pages
• Weight: 5.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.4" x 7.8" x 10.5"

Customer Reviews

Very good and methodical approach

The best part of the book is its illustrations and diagrams explaining the concepts The author has taken care to explain the basics and principles in very clear manner for all branches of chemistry in a unified manner. The chapters of molecular orbital theory, formation of sigma and pi bond, principles of organic reactions are all beautifully explained, again with superb illustrations. My advice is just go to library, I am...

great for mature learners

This book beautifully expalins the basic principles of chemistry. It is meant to be used by mature learners who understand what learning a subject is really about. Unfortuntely, most college students nowadays think learning is spitting out what they just swallowed without going through their mind. Our secondary education just does not prepare them well enough to use texts like this. They should start with a more traditional...

brilliant!

This book should be read by everyone who has an interest in science. Munowitz makes the concepts interesting and exciting. I think some of the reviewers are used to spoonfeeding and therefore prefer more mechanical "cookbooks". Read and enjoy!

An amazing, extraordinary text

This is the most extraordinary general chemistry text I have ever encountered in 25 years of teaching. It is completely unlike all other texts that I know of. It is clear from the first page of the preface and reinforced on page after page thereafter that the author has a deep understanding of the way the physical world works *and* an exceptional gift for communicating that understadning in an engaging, precise way. The...

Excellent book!

This book is very well written. There are only a handful of science books which match the clarity and engaging writing style of Munowitz (Introduction to Electrodynamics by Griffiths, comes to mind). Every Science student should read this wonderful Chemistry text.