Extract
The lofty title of this book is descriptive of the rapidly advancing state
of knowledge regarding the role of mechanics in our ever-expanding
understanding of the musculoskeletal system and its constituent materials. The
book has grown by three chapters and more than 200 pages since the second
edition, which was published in 1997. While several of the authors are new,
others have been maintained, and the text flourishes through their various
contributions. Although entire text-books have been devoted to the history of
science, the author of the first chapter of this textbook succinctly describes
the march of progress with specific regard to the appreciation of
biomechanical concepts. The evolving contributions of many individuals, from
ancient to modern times, are described in a way that compliments our
predecessors while acknowledging that they themselves stood on what Sir Isaac
Newton termed "the shoulders of giants."