The Structure of the Nucleon , Anthony W.Thomas and WolframWeise Wiley-VCH, New York, 2001. $90.00 (289 pp.). ISBN 3-527-40297-7

Nuclear physics has entered a new and challenging period. The discipline’s orbital motion of the constituent quarks and gluons, the roles of strange quarks and instantons, and the condensate structure in the nucleon—which remain to be elucidated by future experimental and theoretical advances.

In synthesizing the field of nucleonic structure, the authors have chosen not to follow a traditional textbook development suitable for beginning students. Rather, mathematical details—derivations of needed cross sections, for example—are left to appendices. Thus the book can serve well as a supplementary reference for all students and as a primary text for advanced students grounded in basic nuclear physics and QCD. It is a book that would usefully sit open on the desk of all professionals in the field.