The study of electromagnetism in higher education, as a fundamental part of both physics and electrical engineering, is typically accompanied by textbooks devoted to the subject. The American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers recommend a full year of graduate study in electromagnetism for all physics graduate students. A joint task force by those organizations in 2006 found that in 76 of the 80 US physics departments surveyed, a course using John Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics was required for all first year graduate students. For undergraduates, there are several widely used textbooks, including David Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics and Electricity and Magnetism by Edward Purcell and David Morin. Also at an undergraduate level, Richard Feynman's classic Lectures on Physics is available online to read for free.
Physics Undergraduate (introductory and intermediate) There are several widely used undergraduate textbooks in electromagnetism, including David Griffiths' Introduction to Electrodynamics as well as Electricity and Magnetism by Edward Purcell and David Morin. Richard Feynman's Lectures on Physics also include a volume on electromagnetism that is available to read online for free, through the California Institute of Technology. In addition, there are popular physics textbooks that include electricity and magnetism among the material they cover, such as David Halliday and Robert Resnick's Fundamentals of Physics.
Davidson PA, An Introduction to Electrodynamics, Oxford University, 2019. Feynman RP, Leighton RB, Sands M, Electromagnetism and Matter, Basic Books, 2010.Reissue of the 1964 textbook published by Addison-Wesley.Second volume in the book series The Feynman Lectures on Physics. In the first volume of the series which is titled Mechanics, Radiation, and Heat, there are also some topics about electromagnetism and optics. Grant IS, Phillips WR, Electromagnetism, 2nd ed, Wiley, 1990. Griffiths DJ, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 5th ed, Cambridge University, 2024. Halliday D, Resnick R, Walker J, Fundamentals of Physics, Extended 12th ed, Wiley, 2022. Heald MA, Marion JB, Classical Electromagnetic Radiation, 3rd ed, Dover, 2012.Reissue of the 1995 textbook published by Saunders.This is an intermediate textbook also suitable for graduate studies. Müller-Kirsten HJW, Electrodynamics, 3rd ed, World Scientific, 2026. Ohanian HC, Classical Electrodynamics, 2nd ed, Jones & Bartlett, 2006. Pauli W, Electrodynamics, Dover, 2000.Reissue of the 1973 textbook published by MIT.First volume in the book series Pauli Lectures on Physics. Pollack GL, Stump DR, Electromagnetism, Addison-Wesley, 2002. Purcell EM, Morin DJ, Electricity and Magnetism, 3rd ed, Cambridge University, 2013. Reitz JR, Milford FJ, Christy RW, Foundations of Electromagnetic Theory, 4th ed, Pearson, 2009. Saslow W, Electricity Magnetism and Light, Academic, 2002. Schwartz M, Principles of Electrodynamics, Dover, 1987.Reissue of the 1972 textbook published by McGraw Hill. Tamm IE, Fundamentals of the Theory of Electricity, Mir, 9th ed, 1979. Vanderlinde J, Classical Electromagnetic Theory, 2nd ed, Springer, 2004. Wangsness RK, Electromagnetic Fields, 2nd ed, Wiley, 1986.
Graduate A 2006 report by a joint taskforce between the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers found that 76 of the 80 physics departments surveyed require a first-year graduate course in John Jackson's Classical Electrodynamics. This made Jackson's book the most popular textbook in any field of graduate-level physics, with Herbert Goldstein's Classical Mechanics as the second most popular with adoption at 48 universities. James Russ, professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon University, claims Jackson's textbook has been "[t]he classic electrodynamics text for the past four decades" and that it is "the book from which most current-generation physicists took their first course." In addition to Jackson's textbook there are other classic textbooks like Classical Electricity and Magnetism by Pief Panofsky and Melba Phillips, and Electrodynamics of Continuous Media by Lev Landau, Evgeny Lifshitz, and Lev Pitaevskii, both pre-dating Jackson's book. Among the textbooks published after Jackson's book, Julian Schwinger's 1970s lecture notes is a mentionable book first published in 1998 posthumously. Due to the domination of Jackson's textbook in graduate physics education, even physicists like Schwinger became frustrated competing with Jackson and because of this, the publication of Schwinger's book was postponed so that it was finally completed and published by his colleagues.
In addition to the mentioned classic books, in recent years there have been a few well-received electromagnetic textbooks published for graduate studies in physics, with one of the most notable being Modern Electrodynamics by Andrew Zangwill published in 2013, which has been praised by many physicists like John Joannopoulos, Michael Berry, Rob Phillips, Alain Aspect, Roberto Merlin, Shirley Chiang, Roy Schwitters but also well received in the electrical engineering community. Another notable textbook is Classical Electromagnetism in a Nutshell by Anupam Garg published in 2012, which has been also praised by physicists like Anthony Zee, Ramamurti Shankar, Jainendra Jain, John Belcher.
Here is the list of some important textbooks that discuss generic physical areas of electromagnetism.
Brau CA, Modern Problems in Classical Electrodynamics, Oxford University, 2004. Chaichian M, Merches I, Radu D, Tureanu A, Electrodynamics: An Intensive Course, Springer, 2016.Haber, H. E. (2024). Electromagnetism II (Course Materials). University of California. Retrieved 3 August 2024. Di Bartolo B, Classical Theory of Electromagnetism, 3rd ed, World Scientific, 2018.Houde, M. (2010). Classical Electrodynamics (Course Materials). University of Western Ontario: Department of Physics and Astronomy. Retrieved 20 January 2024. Franklin J, Classical Electromagnetism, 2nd ed, Dover, 2017. Freeman R, King J, Lafyatis G, Electromagnetic Radiation, Oxford University, 2019. Garg A, Classical Electromagnetism in a Nutshell, Princeton University, 2012. Good RH, Nelson TJ, Classical Theory of Electric and Magnetic Fields, Academic, 1971. Jackson JD, Classical Electrodynamics, 3rd ed, Wiley, 1999. Jentschura UD, Advanced Classical Electrodynamics: Green Functions, Regularizations, Multipole Decompositions, World Scientific, 2017. Landau LD, Lifshitz EM, Pitaevskii LP, Electrodynamics of Continuous Media, 2nd ed, Pergamon, 1984.Eighth volume in the book series Landau and Lifshitz Course of Theoretical Physics. Maggiore M, A Modern Introduction to Classical Electrodynamics, Oxford University, 2023. Melia F, Electrodynamics, University of Chicago, 2001. Milton KA, Schwinger J, Classical Electrodynamics, 2nd ed, CRC, 2024. Panofsky WKH, Phillips M, Classical Electricity and Magnetism, 2nd ed, Dover, 2005.Reissue of the 1962 textbook published by Addison-Wesley. Sommerfeld A, Electrodynamics, Academic, 1952.Third volume in the book series Sommerfeld Lectures on Theoretical Physics. Wald RM, Advanced Classical Electromagnetism, Princeton University, 2022. Wilcox W, Thron C, Macroscopic Electrodynamics: An Introductory Graduate Treatment, 2nd ed, World Scientific, 2024. Zangwill A, Modern Electrodynamics, Cambridge University, 2013.
Specialized Here is the list of some important graduate textbooks that discuss particular physical areas of electromagnetism. Barut AO, Electrodynamics and Classical Theory of Fields and Particles, Dover, 1980.Reissue of the 1964 textbook published by Macmillan. Baylis WE, Electrodynamics: A Modern Geometric Approach, Birkhäuser, 1999. Böttcher CJF, Bordewijk P, Van Belle OC, Rip A, Theory of Electric Polarization, 2nd ed, 2 vols, Elsevier, 1973, 1978.Volume 1: Dielectrics in Static FieldsVolume 2: Dielectrics in Time-Dependent Fields Clemmow PC, Dougherty JP, Electrodynamics of Particles and Plasmas, CRC, 2018.Reissue of the 1969 textbook published by Addison-Wesley. Cullity DB, Stock SR, Elements of X-Ray Diffraction, 3rd ed, Pearson, 2014.Reissue of the 2001 textbook published by the same publisher. Eringen AC, Maugin GA, Electrodynamics of Continua, 2 vols, Springer, 1990.Volume 1: Foundations and Solid MediaVolume 2: Fluids and Complex Media Ginzburg VL, The Propagation of Electromagnetic Waves in Plasmas, 2nd ed, Pergamon, 1970. Hehl FW, Obukhov YN, Foundations of Classical Electrodynamics: Charge, Flux, and Metric, Springer, 2003. Landau LD, Lifshitz EM, The Classical Theory of Fields, 4th ed, Pergamon, 1975.Second volume in the book series Landau and Lifshitz Course of Theoretical Physics. Lechner K, Classical Electrodynamics: A Modern Perspective, Springer, 2018. Oppenheimer JR, Lectures on Electrodynamics, Gordon & Breach, 1970. Post EJ, Formal Structure of Electromagnetics: General Covariance and Electromagnetics, Dover, 1997.Reissue of the 1962 textbook published by North-Holland. Rohrlich F, Classical Charged Particles, 3rd ed, World Scientific, 2007. Rybicki GB, Lightman AP, Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, Wiley, 1979.
Electrical engineering According to a 2011 review of analytical and computational textbooks in electromagnetism by David Davidson, Julius Stratton's Electromagnetic Theory remains the classic text in electromagnetism and is still regularly cited.Although Stratton's textbook originally published in 1941 and no further edition of it was ever published, but the textbook has accumulated more than 20000 citations in Google Scholar. Davidson goes on to point out that Constantine Balanis' Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics and Roger Harrington's Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields are standard references at the post-graduate level. Also for advanced undergraduate level, the textbook Fields and Waves in Communication Electronics by Simon Ramo, John Whinnery, and Theodore Van Duzer is considered as standard reference.
Many of the important and classic graduate electromagnetic textbooks related to electrical engineering listed here are published or reissued by IEEE under the name of The IEEE Press Series on Electromagnetic Wave Theory.Most of the books (not all of them) published in the series are available on web page IEEE Press Series on Electromagnetic Wave Theory in Wiley website.
Undergraduate (introductory and intermediate) Cheng DK, Field and Wave Electromagnetics, 2nd ed, Addison-Wesley, 1989. Hammond P, Electromagnetism for Engineers: An Introductory Course, 4th ed, Oxford University, 1997. Haus HA, Melcher JR, Electromagnetic Fields and Energy, Prentice Hall, 1989. Hayt WH, Buck JA, Engineering Electromagnetics, 9th ed, McGraw Hill, 2018. Ida N, Engineering Electromagnetics, 4th ed, Springer, 2021. Johnk CTA, Engineering Electromagnetic Fields and Waves, 2nd ed, Wiley, 1991. Jordan EC, Balmain KG, Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems, 2nd ed, Prentice Hall, 1968.This is an intermediate textbook also suitable for graduate studies. Kraus JD, Fleisch DA, Russ SH, Electromagnetics with Applications, 5th ed, McGraw Hill, 1999. Lorrain P, Corson DR, Lorrain F, Electromagnetic Fields and Waves: Including Electric Circuits, 3rd ed, WH Freeman, 1988. Ramo S, Whinnery JR, Van Duzer T, Fields and Waves in Communication Electronics, 3rd ed, Wiley, 1994.Earlier editions published as:Fields and Waves in Modern RadioThis is an intermediate textbook also suitable for graduate studies. Sadiku MNO, Elements of Electromagnetics, 7th ed, Oxford University, 2018. Strangeway RA, Holland SS, Richie JE, Electromagnetics and Transmission Lines: Essentials for Electrical Engineering, 2nd ed, Wiley, 2022. Ulaby FT, Ravaioli U, Fundamentals of Applied Electromagnetics, 8th ed, Pearson, 2020.
Graduate Balanis CA, Advanced Engineering Electromagnetics, 3rd ed, Wiley, 2024.