Good resources/books for electromagnetics and other advanced concepts

Question

I'm looking for some good resource that teaches the fundamental concepts behind electronics. I'm not looking for a beginner book. I'm already in the final year of my Electronics and Telecommunication course, so pre-requisites are not a problem.

I'll explain my situation. As long as we're talking about Ohm's law and DC circuits, everything seems to make sense. However, as we introduce inductors, capacitors, AC sources and components, we start talking about fields instead of just "currents" or "charges".

I understand that fundamental laws like KCL or KVL are just abstractions over Maxwell's equations to make our lives easier.

So, I'm looking for a book that will help me understand everything that "happened" in between the simple Ohm's law abstraction and Maxwell's theory. Things like how we can view simple DC circuits using Maxwell's laws. Things like what divergence and curl really represent, and what was the motivation of introducing such concepts.

Is there any such resource/books? I know I'm being a little vague. But I think you understanding what I'm looking for here.

Answer 1

Take a look at "A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations" by Daniel Fleisch.

It is a short book that devotes 1 chapter to each of Maxwell's equations and breaks them down and explains what every last symbol in them means, including the divergence and curl.

It doesn't cover everything you ask about, but it's an inexpensive book that I wish was around back when I took my first E+M fields class. Would have made an excellent supplement to the textbook.

You can also download podcasts from the authors web site.