Customer Reviews

Organic Chemistry

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

(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

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.

These cards though sturdy could include the mechansims in the various reactions o-chem students will have the misfortune of learning. The fact that there are no arrows showing electron movements makes the deck somewhat incomplete. Fortunately there are ample room in the cards so that I as the student can write the mechansims myself. But then I might as well as write the reactions and make own flashcards.

Good cards, but they are too closely tied to the related textbook for me (I use the Wade text for my course). Also, turns out it's easier and better to just make your own cards that deal specifically with what you need to memorize. Lots of cards that were way too simple and thus pointless. Other cards were good but not specific to the reactions I needed. If I was using the text that these are tied to, it could be useful to save time, but try making your own cards first.

Fox and Whiteshell do an interesting job with this book. The text itself has some following as the first two editions were recieved very well. However I find that the book is vague in its target readership, maybe its me but I assumed this book was for first year undergraduate students studying organic chemistry.

Regardless of this fact it does not do an apt job for either the first year level, being a bit too vague in structure and explanation and in the second year level a bit too generalized. The organization is new to be however I feel it is quite lacking in explanation such as concepts about orbitals, it is suggestive about what each quantum mean but why and its relevance to organic chemistry is not discussed.

I found myself benefiting with Wade and Silberberg in the initial year and finally March's and Wade in the second year and so on where reaction mechanisms where studied in more detail.

There are usually 3 courses offered as standard transition subjects to advanced organic chemistry. The introductory, secondly a unit which dedicates itself to reactions and synthesis and finally spectroscopy and interpretation of organic computational chemistry.

This book was out of touch with any of these for me personally, the graphhics I found to be useless and well basically it was an airhead of a book for me since I found the content to be lacking in more than one way.

I would suggest the reader to have a look at other possiblities, if an individual is too concerned about organic chemistry and have problems understanding concepts then McMurry is the best, however for an average student such as myself I found Wade to do a better job. Greeves et al is for the smarter more serious students.

This text was written by a well-respected physical organic chemist, who is now the Chancellor of UC San Diego. It is definitely one of the best US sophomore level o-chem text. It strives to help students understand and apply what they learn rather than memorize facts that do not make sense to them.

This seems to be the only sophomore level text that uses full mechanism approach. The texts by Bruice and by Jones uses some kind of hybrid of traditional functional group approach and mechanism approach.

One question remains unanswered for me. How would this text be received by students who had no previous knowledge of organic chemistry. All three previous reviewers are either seasoned chemists or serious students who were almost through the second semester o-chem when they reviewed this book. I wish students who actually use it as their textbook can offer their opinions.

The price of the book is cheaper than other major competitors (McMurry, Bruice, Jones, Ege, Solomons, etc).

If I have to make an adoption decision now, this text would be on my short list with Bruice, Jones, Ege, and Louden.

The book is great for science majors, despite that it is geared towards High school students. My college switched to this book from the Solomon and Fryhle textbook. I admit that I was very scared of Organic Chemistry and had to take the class twice. I used this book the second time and it's not that the book waters things down, but makes the topic more approachable. It explains things clearly and not with a tone that many Science book authors use of assuming you should know this or that. The book uses language understandable by any ordinary and average student like me, and this made me very comfortable at actually attempting to succeed the second time. I actually received an A in the course and understood the material as I should have. For the second half of Organic Chemistry, O-Chem 2, I switched back to the Solomon and Fryhles and because I knew the functional groups and the theory, I was quite unafraid of using such book. My opinion changed on the Solomon and Fryhle book, and I render both books to be top notch. However, Fox gets five stars for making O-Chem a breeze.

The biggest problem is terminology. Technical terms were used before they were defined (if they were defined at all) and in such a way that the reader would not even KNOW the terms were being used in a context-specific, technical manner. When you run across a word or idea you don't understand, you look it up in the index, right? That didn't work. The book/index "interface" (?) was utterly unorganized. I imagine some problems have been corrected in subsequent editions. If you are looking for a good organic chem text to use as a reference, my understanding is that John McMurry's books are really good. I've had several chemists recommend his books to me.

But I love the deal I got on this book. Thank you so much for saving me so much money!! And the book arrived in the right condition. Good seller!!