I rather like Jackson, despite the third edition going to SI units (oh how
the mighty have fallen!). But here are a few of alternatives that I am
aware of. (I make no claims as to whether or not they are currently in
print, with the possible exception of Panofsky and Phillips I think they are
all in print.) These are all sort of at the first year graduate level.
a) Panofsky and Phillips (Addison-Wesley): Classical Electricity and
Magnetism
the pre-Jackson standard
b) DiBartolo (Prentice-Hall): Classical Theory of Electromagnetism
fairly recent text (last 15 years), works a lot of the math in all its
multi-page gory detail.
c) Either one of the Landau and Lifshitz books (Pergamon and/or
Addison-Wesley): Electrodnamics of continous media (easier) or The Classical
Theory of Fields.
d) VanderLinde (Wiley): Classical Electromagnetic theory
Easier than the others I mention, but perhaps a good choice for a class of
weaker students; I've never used it but think that the prose style is done
well and a reasonbly good choice of what to cut for a more managable text.
e) Baylis (Birkhaeuser): Electrodynamics, A Modern Geometric Approach
I don't really recommend this for the typical 1st year class as it is very
non-standard and heavy on the use of geometrical techniques, the E&M fields
are represented as biparavectors in Clifford Algebra's from the very
beginning. It just happens to be the most recent text that I got a copy of.
Presumably there are others, less well known.
Joel Rauber
----------
From: Kenneth J. Morgan
To: PHYS-L
Subject: Jackson E and M
Date: Tuesday, April 06, 1999 7:18AM
I'm new on the phy-l list and joined so that I could ask this question.
Hopefully, someone might be able to help.
You are all aware, I am sure, of the infamous book Classical
Electrodynamics by Jackson, used as a text for a graduate-level E and M
course. I would like to know if there are any in-print competitors to
Jackson that could serve as a viable alternative as a graduate-level text.