For the second edition, the objectives and the approach previously used have been maintained. In many areas the science base of the subject has shown little change since the first edition and here the text has only been modified by improved examples where available. In other areas the subject has advanced significantly and the text has been updated with the insights. Topics previously covered incompletely, notably the highly unstable microstructure produced initially by rapid solidification but subsequently by other processing routes, have been greatly expanded. Other significant developments that have taken place include the detailed experimental studies of homogeneous nucleation, the growth of Widmanstätten precipitates and precipitate coarsening, and the new insights into the nucleation of recrystallisation, and grain growth and its inhibition by second-phase particles. In other areas, despite the importance of the subject, progress has been disappointingly slow. As in the first edition, we have tried to indicate where there are unsolved problems. The first edition provided the authors with a rich supply of fruitful research topics and we hope that this was also true for our readers and will be equally true for the second edition. Microstructural stability of metallic (and other industrially important) materials remains a field of research with many scientific and potential engineering applications.

The authors are again grateful to Professor Robert Cahn FRS for his efforts to get this volume completed and his much-appreciated enthusiasm.