Panovko Y., Gubanova I. Stability and oscillations of elastic systems: paradoxes, fallacies, and new concepts

Foreword by W. Flügge. — Authorized translation from the Russian by Chas. V. Larrick. — New York: Consultants Bureau, 1965. — 291 p.There are textbooks, and there are monographs, and there is, of course, popular science aplenty, but there are very few scientific books which do not fall into one of these classes. The present book is one of the few. It does not, like "the most teachable text," pound a carefully chosen selection of information into the student's mind, nor does it present its special subject to a reader who wants a working knowledge applicable to a difficult problem before him, ` and it also does not popularize results for the benefit of a large public. Then, what does it do?
It is a book for mature readers, for those who have already been initiated into applied mechanics and who will read it for the pleasure of seeing many a surprising detail that is not found in books elsewhere, The authors have collected the unusual, the unexpected, the little, fascinating things that lie off the beaten path, and they have seasoned their presentation with historic notes, showing how even the leaders in the field have erred when a new situation called for an unconventional idea.
May the book bring many a reader the same enjoyment and intellectual enrichment which it has brought the writer of these lines!