Quantum Field Theory and Condensed Matter

'The study of minimally complicated models is ... central to the field of condensed-matter physics. Those models, and the tools needed to understand them, are the subject of Ramamurti Shankar's new book, Quantum Field Theory and Condensed Matter: An Introduction. What is different about Shankar's text? For one thing, it is shorter [than his competitors]. Accordingly, Shankar's book is less ambitious in its aim and more selective in its content. That makes it both a more introductory text and a friendlier read. It will be a good textbook for a one-semester first-year graduate course.' Mike Stone, Physics Today