isbn0471736961

Reader' Reviews

Should not be part of the course work for someone persuing a materials science degree / / 2010-08-26
Don't waste your money. William D. Callister has rewritten this book into many editions, some of which occur under different titles. The price for this book also seems to be increasing disproportionately with the addition of valuable information (the book is just overpriced). I would recommend this book to anyone perusing a degree other then materials science. The book does provide a good amount of breadth and is a good reference if this is the only materials science course work that you will ever do. If you are a materials scientist then taking a class with this book as the primary text will only result in redundancy. The book is an overview of processing and properties that doesn't provide enough background theory and explanation to develop an understanding of materials science. I used this book in my sophomore year in my very first materials science class and it is my understanding that most other materials science programs use this book in the same fashion. The catch of the book is that until you have studied thermodynamics, crystallography, and mechanical properties in your later years of study this book only forces you to memorize rules, properties, and theories without understanding why or how such things exist. The book couldn't even be called a top down approach to materials science because it doesn't go down at all. All of the information in this book will be reiterated in later course work using other texts that will actually help you to understand in a more complete way the concepts of materials science.

Material Science and Engineering / / 2010-07-13
The book was in excellent condition and I paid a good price. However, it was not what I thought it was - being a question and answer style college book. However, that was my fault.

Still glad I bought it though

a beautiful and good book / / 2010-06-10
It is a book that review all the basic in materials and gives some profound explanation in some topics. It is very interesting and learn the moderns theory in materials.

Excellent / / 2010-06-09
Very clear, descriptive, and fun textbook to learn with. By far my favorite - I won't be selling this one back.

One of the Best / / 2010-05-16
I used this text in a graduate level intro materials course. After several other courses covering metals, composites, etc. I continually go back to Callister for some level of consult. It's a great big picture text covering materials concepts, but still has sufficient detail to continue to be valuable beyond the introductory level.
Overall, it's top shelf.