The concept of stability is intrinsically a dynamical one. This is recognized even by the simplistic classical definition, which ignores the random disturbances of the real world and just inquires what would happen if a system were displaced to an adjacent position in phase space. So we are lucky, indeed, to have this well-conceived book written by a leading researcher who has mastered both nonlinear dynamics and the static bifurcations of elastic stability theory. The latter theory works well for conservative systems, for which powerful energy theorems are available, but needs augmenting by dynamical methods in the presence of loading that is either nonconservative or time dependent.

Lawrence Virgin has of course just the right background, having chosen (in his usual thoughtful way) to work first at University College London, then with Earl Dowell at Duke University. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke (which has an active interdisciplinary program in nonlinear dynamics) and has enjoyed productive collaborations with Raymond Plaut (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). His previous book, Introduction to Experimental Nonlinear Dynamics (also published by Cambridge University Press), brought a welcome sense of realism into the often esoteric field of nonlinear dynamics by focusing on experimental investigations, and I am delighted to see a similar emphasis in this new book titled Vibration of Axially Loaded Structures.

Understanding the buckling and vibration of structures under axial compression is of very great importance to structural and aerospace engineers, to whom this book is primarily addressed.