Textbook Review: Differential Equations (Blanchard) Fourth Edition

 

This was the required book for my calculus 4 class which was a combination of linear algebra and differential equations. My professor did not actually use the book all that much so I honestly did not use it as much as I used other books in other classes. This is definitely a different kind of textbook. It does not really jump right into the theory and then problem sets like most books do. Instead, it almost reads like a novel, then starts getting into theory and examples, then has the problem sets after that. I am not exactly sure how I would have felt about that style had I needed to use the book more. In the differential equations portion of the class my professor basically taught from his own notes and made up his own problem sets (although he did use some problems from the book), so this was more ancillary to the class than the books I used in some of my other math. I remember thinking that it was kind of an odd way to set up a math book when I did read it until I discovered I could follow along with what my teacher was saying without having to consult the book. If you are in a class and your teacher does rely on the book heavily you may need to get some kind of study guide to go along with this, depending on how well you can understand how it presents the material.