Organic Chemistry [Hardcover]

Marye Anne Fox (Author), James K. Whitesell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0867202076 | ISBN-13: 978-0867202076 | Publication Date: October 1994

As in previous editions, the Third Edition of Organic Chemistry succeeds in providing students with an accessible framework for understanding the complex material covered in this course. Fox and Whitesell are pioneers of the mechanistic approach, and they utilize this proven and effective pedagogy to equip students with a solid foundation to retain Organic Chemistry principles and apply them to practical applications in other areas of science.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 896 pages
• Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Pub (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0867202076
• ISBN-13: 978-0867202076
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,043,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The thoughts of a serious beginner, November 22, 2001

By 

Thomas D. Worthen (tucson, az United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Organic Chemistry (Hardcover)

Halfway through a second-semester course in organic chemistry, I found myself thinking there has to be a better way to present this extremely complex material than is found in the text my class is using (Brown and Foote). A trip to the local academic bookstore where both new and used textbooks are sold proved this assumption wrong. There are four or five textbooks out there still in print and several others which have passed out of print. They all present the material in the same order and fashion as Brown and Foote: review of general chemistry as it applies to the chemistry of carbon, alkanes, cycloalkanes, stereochemistry, alkenes, alkynes,and then functional groups (here the order may vary slightly). Analytical techniques are saved for the middle of the book, then more functional groups until we reach a short unit on biochemistry at the end. From the point of view of this student the subject simply becomes overwhelming about three weeks into the second semester. Reaction after reaction to memorize with little clew as to how these fit into a general scheme for reaction types, mechanism after mechanism with little insight into how these fall into patterns. Then, haply, in the back corner I found Fox and Whitsell for a mere $(...). The material is presented in the way a painter makes a picture. First a sketch, then a little more detail, a little more color until the full portrait of organic chemistry (at the elementary level, at least) is replete with the same detail as in the other books, but with a gradually built foundation whose principles are called up over and again (with back references)so that the learner is not allowed to forget what she learned a month ago. By the end of the third chapter the student has been introduced to alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, cyclocompounds and functional groups containing heteroatoms divided by the hybridization they exhibit. We know about bond cleavage and formation, reaction types, and a nearly completed system for nomenclature. Then come analytical techniques, stereochemistry and chapters 6 and 7 on organic reactions and mechanisms which gives the learner some idea about how and why certain organic reactions go and why others do not and presents a pattern of mechanisms that can be applied thereafter. The detailed chapters that follow up through 16 don't have titles like ETHERS but "Substitution alpha to carbonyl groups," Skeletal-rearrangement reactions, etc. The last part of the book on biochemistry does not go down as Lipids, Carbohydrates, etc., but as Naturally occurring oxygen-containing compounds, Energy storage in organic molecules,etc.

I rejoice in finding this book and have started to re-read the whole course as Ms.Fox has written it. Alas, likely I will not finish that task before the end of the semester catches up to me, but the great CD Whitsell has put into the package will help me review everything without rereading everything since its quizzes mimic the American Chemical Society's standardized test that our class must stand in lieu of a final examination.

THIS IS THE BOOK on O-chem!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unparallelled in its logical, mechanistic presentation, June 13, 2000

By 

Giovani Bassi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Organic Chemistry (Hardcover)

(I will get back with a fuller review later.) I got hold of this book one hour ago, and just had to dispatch a quick comment to all preseumtive readers: "This book is the one to get!" If you like a logical presentation, founded on mechanism classes and electronic distribution, rather than giving, in a meaningless fashion, all heed to various classes of compounds, as all authors except for Peter Sykes have been doing for the past decades - then do buy this. This is the book I have been looking for for maybe ten years, as an introduction to beginners fresh out of high-school, with a great fear for maths, physics and even chemistry. Get Sykes: "A Guidebook to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry", too. Also, the miniature book "A Primer to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry" is good, if you have not read one syllable about organic chemistry before. (The latter work is absolutely studded with small illogical errors in the language - not in the factual background, though (disregarding the level of simplification) - though, that render it far less attractive than the other book, an established bible. Best Wishes, G B

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Novice Approach to Organic Chemistry, August 23, 2001

By 

Matthew M. Yau "Voracious reader" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Organic Chemistry (Hardcover)

Editorial review is right about this book. No current organic text is written and presented like Fox. Instead of a coherent discussion on different functional groups and thier chemistry, Fox had adopted a new approach in introducing the basic concepts of the subject. Chromatography and spectroscopy, the core idea in organic laboratory and research, is introduced early in Chapter 4. The coverage on NMR and GC might be supplemented by an introductory text on the subject like Crews' "Organic Structural Analysis". Yet Fox had successfully familiarized students with the concepts of research. The rest of the text discusses reaction types and mechanisms. A chapter is devoted to the idea of multistep synthesis and retrosynthesis. The book also emphasizes on mechanisms and coming up with the most efficient synthetic route as reflected in the end-of-chapter problem sets.