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A Primer to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry Peter Sykes. Longman Scientific & Technical: Essex, England, 1995; xii + 177 pp. 15.9 × 23.3 cm.
Most organic chemists will be familiar with A Guidebook to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry by Peter Sykes. The six editions of the Guidebook (first published in 1961; 6th edition published in 1986) have helped several generations of graduate students assimilate a mechanistic view of organic chemistry. The Primer represents a significant departure from both the style and content of the Guidebook. In the author's own words:
"The Primer is a considerably simpler book, one that seeks to set out the basic, underlying framework of organic reaction mechanisms... The basic premise is that it is possible-at this level-to make some sense out of the apparent overfacing complexity of organic chemistry on the basis of three underlying axioms: that there are only three types of reactions-substitution, addition and elimination; that these reactions involve only three types of reagent-nucleophiles, electrophiles and radicals; and that there are only two effects-electronic and steric... There is no discussion of bonding that involves orbital theory, nor-in formal terms-of chemical energetics..."
The empirical categorization based on reaction type and reagent type is appealing...