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Book review |
Kingston Univ., UK
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It is always a delight to read a book written by someone who knows what he is writing about, and who writes well. This textbook is a perfect example. I do, however, doubt that many undergraduate students will master it all, whether they follow a three or four year undergraduate course. If they take a specialist Masters’ course subsequently, they will probably need to obtain several more specialist texts to supplement this one. Going into a second, enlarged, edition demonstrates at least two things: firstly, that the original edition was a success; and secondly, that the Author has found and probably filled the most obvious gaps in coverage. It is also likely that he has corrected the more easily found errors (vide the Preface). This book is also excellent value for money, and is easily affordable.
Professor Powrie writes for the UK reader. His language is unashamedly ‘English English’, and all his case records reflect practice in the British Isles. This may regrettably cost him some of readership in the wider world that this book deserves. He puts the theory into a very practical context, and (usually) gives examples that are more advanced than the trivial ones of most other books targeted at an undergraduate audience. The reader gains the impression that Powrie deals in real soils, not in theoretical abstractions.
The highly mathematical treatment of consolidation is at odds with the rest of the book: there is no similar treatment of elastic stresses, for instance, which are handled with
