Customer Reviews

Probability (Springer Texts in Statistics)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my preferred introduction to probability theory. It is a clearly written and pleasant to read reference.

This is a passable book on probability. It is a halfway house between undergraduate probability and measure theoretic probability. Generally speaking, it lacks rigour; statements like "the proof is surprisingly difficult so we only give a heuristic justification" are not good enough, especially when the author does not then bother to refer the reader to a source where the proof can be found. Also, I felt that not enough was done to frame things in the language of measure theory.

Overall, the exposition is serviceable but dull. There are also a lot of typographical errors (missed out words and typos in equations) and a few incorrect proofs (e.g. the proof of Minkowski's inequality). All in all, considering its flaws and price, you can "probably" do a lot better.

This is the text book we used when I took a probability course in Johns Hopkins. The book covers all basic topics and provides a fair introduction to measure-theory based probability theory (without heavy dose of measure theory). However, when it gets to more advanced topics, like the chapters on the central limit theorems and martingales, the text is less lucid and full of typos and mistakes. At times, it became so frustrating to read that I could only wish we had used a better book.