1. Introduction.- 1.1. Some Physical Examples of Systems of Conservation Laws.- 1.2. The Importance of Dissipative Mechanisms.- 1.3. The Common Structure of the Physical Systems of Conservation Laws and Friedrichs’ Theory of Symmetric Systems.- 1.4. Linear and Nonlinear Wave Propagation and the Theory of Nonlinear Simple Waves.- 1.5. Weakly Nonlinear Asymptotics — Nonlinear Geometric Optics.- 1.6. A Rigorous Justification of Weakly Nonlinear Asymptotics in a Special Case.- 1.7. Some Additional Applications of Weakly Nonlinear Asymptotics in the Modeling of Complex Systems.- Bibliography for Chapter 1.- 2. Smooth Solutions and the Equations of Incompressible Fluid Flow.- 2.1. The Local Existence of Smooth Solutions for Systems of Conservation Laws.- 2.2. A Continuation Principle for Smooth Solutions 46 2.3. Uniformly Local Sobolev Spaces.- 2.4. Compressible and Incompressible Fluid Flow.- 2.5. Equations for Low Mach Number Combustion.- Bibliography for Chapter 2.- 3. The Formation of Shock Waves in Smooth Solutions.- 3.1. Shock Formation for Scalar Laws in Several Space Variables.- 3.2. Shock Formation in Plane Wave Solutions of General m × m Systems.- 3.3. Detailed Results on Shock Formation for 2 × 2 Systems.- 3.4. Breakdown for a Quasi-Linear Wave Equation in 3-D.- 3.5. Some Open Problems Involving Shock Formation in Smooth Solutions.- Bibliography for Chapter 3.- 4. The Existence and Stability of Shock Fronts in Several Space Variables.- 4.1. Nonlinear Discontinuous Progressing Waves in Several Variables — Shock Front Initial Data.- 4.2. Some Theorems Guaranteeing the Existence of Shock Fronts.- 4.3. Linearization of Shock Fronts.- 4.4. An Introduction to Hyperbolic Mixed Problems.- 4.5. Quantitative Estimates for Linearized Shock Fronts.- 4.6. Some OpenProblems in Multi-D Shock Wave Theory.- Bibliography for Chapter 4.