The first part of this book, i.e. “Classical solid mechanics”, is in the main a repetition of the first author’s “Foundations of solid mechanics” published in 1965, in which the treatment of finite deformations was revised and plasticity was supplemented by more recent theories. Though the basis of solid mechanics is still the same, ideas about teaching have changed in 36 years, and the chapter on tensor analysis, e.g., looks rather outdated. Though many persons contributed to the improvement of the “Foundations of solid mechanics”, some details are still unclear or even wrong, as the schematic drawing for Rayleigh surface waves on p. 234. As for the second part, i.e. “Computational solid mechanics”, the authors present five chapters covering incremental approach, finite element methods, and mixed and hybrid formulations.
The authors address the book to “engineers who invent and design things…” as well as to engineering scientists. Whether a common treatment can satisfy the diverging needs of these two groups, is questionable.