Craig's soil mechanics, 8th edn.

Craig's soil mechanics, 8th edn. J. A. Knappett and R. F. Craig. Abingdon, UK: Spon Press, 2012. 584 pp. ISBN 978-0415-56126-6, £32.99

For almost 40 years Dr Craig's textbook has been used in undergraduate geotechnical teaching across the world. The first edition of this text was published by Spon in 1974 and since then updated editions have been published about every 4-5 years. This reviewer used the fifth edition (Craig, 1992) as a student, and has been using the seventh edition (Craig, 2004) in teaching. The recently published eighth edition (Knappett & Craig, 2012) includes a number of very positive changes. As first author Dr Jonathan Knappett has brought a new perspective to the text. Dr Knappett is, like Dr Craig, an academic staffmember at the University of Dundee.

This reviewer is now recommending Craig's soil mechanics to students with renewed enthusiasm, because the text has been restructured and new materials have been included. (The reviewer teaches elements of an undergraduate MEng course (year 1 soil mechanics and year 3 foundations) and a core module of the soil mechanics MSc course (on consolidation and seepage).) Little changed in the text between the fifth and seventh editions of the text, apart from the inclusion of a final case studies chapter. The eighth edition retains many useful features of the book, including clearly worded text, a large number of problems at the end of each chapter and clearly laid out example problems. The clear division of the text into two parts is a significant improvement: Part 1 is concerned with soil behaviour (it is called 'Development of a mechanical model for soil') and Part 2 considers applications. Although the chapter headings are largely similar to those in previous editions, they have been rearranged in a more appropriate order.

Considering the first part of the...