Electromagnetism is one of the pillars of modern physics. Robert Wald provides graduate students with a clear, concise, and mathematically precise introduction to the subject, covering all the core topics while bringing the teaching of electromagnetism up to date with our modern understanding of the subject.
Electromagnetism is usually taught in a quasi-historical fashion, starting from concepts formulated in the 18th and 19th centuries, but this tends to promote outdated ways of thinking about the theory.
Wald begins with Maxwell’s equations—the foundation of electromagnetism—together with the formulas for the energy density, momentum density, and stress tensor of the electromagnetic field.
He then proceeds through all the major topics in classical electromagnetism, such as electrostatics, dielectrics, magnetostatics, electrodynamics and radiation, diffraction, and special relativity.
