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“Just the facts” was Sergeant Friday’s signature line from the TV show, Dragnet. Beckett and Platt have adopted the same philosophy for their text, The Periodic Table at a Glance. As the title suggests, the text is organized around the periodic table. The first two chapters review the basics of atomic structure, periodic properties, and chemical bonding. Chapters three through five present the essential aspects of the descriptive chemistry of the s- and p-block elements as well as hydrogen. The fundamentals of d-block and inner transition metal bonding, structure, reactivity, and descriptive chemistry are covered in the last two chapters. Topics are presented in “bite-size” sections of two or three pages. Examples are limited in number, but they have been carefully chosen to illustrate key concepts. Explanations and discussions are brief and to the point, just long enough that students will not feel as if they are reading pages from a dictionary. For the reader who needs a more in-depth explanation of a specific topic, a limited but adequate list of suggested further readings is at the end of the text. A glaring omission is the lack of practice or end-of-the-chapter exercises for students to test their understanding of the material.
The Periodic Table at a Glance would not be an appropriate selection as the primary resource for students in either a sophomore- or senior-level inorganic lecture course. However, the text is a very good choice for the student who needs a quick review of the basics of inorganic chemistry but does not have the time to wade through the 700 plus pages of a standard inorganic textbook. In addition, advanced students in engineering or materials would probably find the text useful as a brief introduction to inorganic chemistry.
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