Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields (IEEE Press Series on Electromagnetic Wave Theory)

This is a classic graduate textbook for Advanced Electromagnetics courses. One of the main things that I liked the most about this book is Dr. Harrington's strict adherence to one of Dr. Einstein's principles: "make things simple, but no simpler" - which works perfect for a graduate-level textbook. I am not implying that this book is difficult to follow than other commonly used graduate texts ("Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics" by Balanis comes to mind). In fact, this book is much easier to read and follow than books that tend to derive everything for you (which simply ends up cluttering your thought process with too much detail instead of focussing on the main concept in question). Read the chapter on "Cylindrical Waves" and compare it with its equivalent in Balanis's book, and you will understand my point. This book is quintessential for graduate students contemplating a career in Computational Electromagnetics.

When I was first introduced to Electro-Magnetics (EM), I thought of Harrington's book as one of these oldies which senior professors have sitting on a dusty shelf. To the novice who I was it lacked the modern flair of the recent publications. Time went on, I took classes which tought me mathematical & numerical recipes, yet left me with little understanding of EM phenomenons. Soon enough and by my own fault I forgot the basic principles while concentrating on the math, and I lost interest. As a microwave design engineer later on I kept bumping into problems which had not yet been discussed in the litterature or for which I needed a simpler solution than the numerical approaches that are in fashion. I looked for the book which would offer the right mix of theoritical treatment and engineering relevance for the likes of me. I noticed that Harrington's was the most quoted one in the litterature just about, and thought that there must be a good reason for this. So I ordered a copy. I went through it with a pen in hand and solved the exercises at the end of each chapter. It was frustrating at first, because I had long lost the habit of manipulating the basic math of EM. I kept at it however, as the more I read the more I realised how much I ignored. I even got the taste for EM over time. Harrington's thus became a reference to which I turn almost every time I face a new EM problem. From a didactic point of view it is about the best textbook I have ever come across. Also it has more relevance to modern EM engineering than it seems at first sight: one will even find a mention of the coplanar waveguide (p.135)! I warmly recommend it to both the engineer and the student. But remember: read it with a pen in hand, and do the exercises at the end of each chapter! A couple of shortcomings I ought to mention though: the stationary formula for the input impedance of a wire dipole radiator (7.9) is not well explained (see Jordan & Balmain's, 14.09), nor are stationary formulae for the impedance matrix of general networks (3.8). Still: a very good buy. Harrington's "Field Computation by Moment Methods" is an other good one by the way.

I was introduced to this classic while I was a master's (M.Tech) student at IIT Kharagpur, India in 1981.Prof. Harrington's very pithy approach provoked me to think deeply on the subject. It is because of this book that my interest in the subject has been alive and vibrant today.I met Prof. Harrington for the 1st time at the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Conference at Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1993. Prof. Harrington comforted me by saying that he has no plans to do any alterantions to this classic text in the near future.This book is not for the indolent and hence is not for causal reading like many lengthy and `verbose' textbooks on this subject. However, if I have ever an opportunity for organizing a 1st-year graduate course on EM theory, I shall use Harrington. Why wouldn't you ?