Review of Collected Works of J. D. Eshelby: The Mechanics of Defects and Inhomogeneities by Xanthippi Markenscoff and Anurag Gupta: Springer; 2006; 931 pp. Price: $289.

This book presents a vast collection of all the published papers of John Douglas Eshelby. These papers provide a comprehensive treatment to the subjects of elasticity theory that Eshelby worked with—basically the physics of dislocations and defects in solids. The editors are congratulated for providing this collection of valuable papers in one unique volume that is accessible to researchers in this field.

The book contains a total of 58 papers that Eshelby wrote on this subject in addition to a short biographical sketch and four forewords written by four eminent scientists in this field. Even though Eshelby wrote no books, some of the papers included are large reviews similar to monographs; in fact there are ten such monograph-like review papers included in this book.

The collected papers in this volume cover four major areas that Eshelby investigated. These areas are elastic singularities and the energy momentum tensor, fracture mechanics, inclusions and inhomogeneities, and dislocations and point defects. There is also coverage of cracks and phase transformations. The availability of this large number of papers on these four topics provides a valuable resource for researchers in this field of study. The book is well-arranged, self-contained, and may well provide a graduate book for advanced students in this field of study. In a logical and pedagogical manner, the book covers the essential materials needed as a background for graduate students planning to conduct advanced research in solid mechanics. The clarity of exposition allows self-study of the subject complementing the instructions in class.

Eshelby’s papers do not only represent “what was tractable for solution at the time,” but these papers contain some of the most influential works written in solid mechanics. This influential role of Eshelby’s works was less clear during his lifetime than after his death. His 1957 Proc Roy Soc paper on inhomogeneities has become one of the most cited paper in solid mechanics (when the hugely growing field of micromechanics built heavily on that paper).

The topics covered in this book were carefully chosen by Eshelby when he first worked on them. He selected those topics that were topical and difficult but were sufficiently tractable for solution at the time. Most of the papers are concerned with classical concepts of physics and the theory of elasticity. In assembling these topics in one single volume, the editors have provided a consistent and comprehensive treatment of these topics. The scientific community has been waiting for such a book of collected works for years, especially one in which the concepts of eignestress and eigenstrain are presented in a consistent manner.

In summary, the book is useful for graduate students and researchers in various fields of engineering and science including materials science, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, engineering mechanics, aerospace engineering, biomedical engineering and atomistic physics. This book definitely deserves to reach a wide readership. Eshelby’s contribution to the scientific community over the course of his life is remarkable and this collection of his work is a timely tribute to his lasting influence. The editors have done a great job in bringing all the material together.