This is the best-written general chemistry book I have ever read. An editor with whom I have worked recently remarked that he felt his job was to help authors make their writing sing. Well, the writing in Principles of Chemistry sings with the full, rich harmonies and creative inventiveness of the King's Singers or Chanticleer. Here is the first sentence of the introduction: "Central to any understanding of the physical world is one discovery of paramount importance, a truth disarmingly simple yet profound in its implications: matter is not continuous." This is prose to be savored and celebrated.

Principles of Chemistry has a distinct perspective on chemistry: the perspective of the physical chemist. The focus is on simplicity, what is common about molecules and reactions; begin with the microscopic and build bridges to the macroscopic. The author's perspective is clear from the organization of the book. After three rather broad introductory chapters, there are four chapters that develop the quantum mechanical theory of atoms and molecules, including a strong treatment of molecular orbital theory. Unlike many books, Principles of Chemistry presents the molecular orbital approach first and introduces valence bond theory later only as an approximation for dealing with more complicated molecules. The usual chapters on descriptive inorganic chemistry are absent (though there is an excellent chapter on organic and biological molecules and reactions as well as one on transition metal complexes). Instead, descriptive chemistry is integrated into the development of principles.

This is a very conceptual book. Each chapter has two parts, which are distinguished by having different-colored pages: white and gray. The first part of every chapter is a lovely conceptual development of the "big picture". In these white pages, there are no sample problems, no tables of data, just elegant prose liberally illustrated with graphs and diagrams. Mathematical and chemical equations and chemical structures are presented as needed, but the goal is to provide the reader with a conceptual understanding. I found these introductory "lectures", as Munowitz terms them, to be enchanting.

The second part of each chapter is a review and guide to problems, what Munowitz calls the "recitation" section. These pages are gray. This second section gives a brief summary of the material, which is followed by a series of worked examples that apply the concepts to practical problems. This structure reflects the author's pedagogical philosophy--begin with the general and move to the specific--and his view of chemistry as a combination of "lofty principles and gritty practicality". Following the worked examples, of course, are exercises for the student, ranging from simple drill problems to more sophisticated applications of the principles. I was a little disappointed, however, that there were so few conceptual exercises.

Although Munowitz describes the second part of each chapter as a review and applications, he does put new material into the sample problems. For example, in Chapter 3 the concept of oxidation numbers is introduced and sample problems on the assignment of oxidation numbers are presented. Then, in example 3-3, the concept of formal charge is presented as a contrast to the oxidation number even though this idea had not been previously introduced.

The dual structure of white and gray pages makes this book unique but also very long. The combined length of the white sections is about 800 pages, but an approximately 25-page conceptual section is always followed by about 20 pages of review and sample problems, so the overall book is rather imposing. There are 21 chapters and four long appendices: nomenclature and vocabulary, pertinent mathematics, data, and a glossary.

So what is the appropriate audience for this interesting book? Since I am a conceptual thinker, this would be an excellent book for me to learn from. I am sure that I will turn to it for ideas and insights to use in my own teaching. Unfortunately, I am less confident that Principles of Chemistry would be a good book for the majority of students I teach. Most of them are algorithmic learners who need more worked examples and more explicit instruction on how to apply the principles to practical situations than this book provides. For example, Munowitz disposes of stoichiometry in about eight pages of Chapter 2, along with a few worked examples in the gray pages. Most general chemistry books devote at least a long chapter to this topic and many students still have trouble mastering it. As a physical chemist I appreciate the distinct perspective on chemistry from which the book is written, but I suspect that my colleagues from other subdisciplines might find it less congenial. Sadly, I am forced to conclude that Principles of Chemistry may be too conceptual and too sophisticated for most mainline general chemistry courses, though I would be delighted to be proved wrong.

On the other hand, I think that this would be a marvelous book for an honors course at a large university or the first-year chemistry course at a selective college. For students with a good background in science and mathematics who are motivated to learn, this book is a rich source of insight into the nature of chemistry. Michael Munowitz clearly loves both chemistry and writing and he has used all his rhetorical skills to try to communicate his profound understanding of the subject to students. I hope that this book finds its niche in chemical education because it would be sad to have so wonderful a gift to the community go unappreciated and unused.