This tried and tested book was first published by Stephen Rowland in 1986. Ernest Duebendorfer was involved in the second edition of 1994, and now Ilsa Schiefelbein has joined the team for the third edition. The philosophy and general content of this edition remains substantially the same as in previous versions, but the presentation has been thoroughly updated. All the figures have been redrafted, the tear-out maps and exercises are now gathered at the end of the book rather than interspersed in the text, and the enclosed map, on which the earlier chapters are based, is now in one large sheet rather than on six small ones to be taped together.

A textbook that reaches a third edition is clearly fulfilling a useful role. Structural Analysis and Synthesis aims to be a laboratory manual for a first course on structural geology. It comprises seventeen chapters, each containing material for a three-hour lab session. The first ten chapters concentrate on basic structural techniques essential to map analysis: attitudes of lines and planes, structure contours and bed thickness, structural sections, stereograms, folds and cleavage, faults and their dynamic and kinematic analysis. Chapter 11 involves a structural synthesis of the mythical, but by this point familiar, Bree Creek Quadrangle. The last six chapters cover more advanced topics: rheological models, brittle failure, strain measurement, balanced cross sections, deformation mechanisms, and the geometry of plate tectonics. The authors stress that these chapters need not be covered strictly in the published order, and that the book can therefore be used flexibly to augment a variety of taught courses. There is an instructor's CD-ROM available to help with course presentation.

I have been teaching structural geology courses long enough to have built up my own bank of tried and tested laboratory sessions. However, it is encouraging to find that they cover much the same ground as Structural Analysis and Synthesis. Any teacher faced with compiling a new course can confidently turn to this book knowing that it offers an excellent coverage of practical topics for an introductory structural geology course. The only caveat is that the map exercises use units of feet rather than metres, something that students will need to face out in the real world beyond Bree Creek anyway.