Page 8 - Mechanism and Theory in Organic Chemistry

PREFACE

This book is intended as a text for undergraduate and first-year graduate
students who have completed a one-year course in organic chemistry. Its aim
is to provide a structure that will help the student to organize and interrelate ,.
the factual information obtained in the earlier course and serve as a basis for 'L 1
study in greater depth of individual organic reactions and of methods by which \ ,
chemists obtain information about chemical processes.
The primary focus of the book is on reaction mechanisms, not only because
knowledge of mechanism is essential to understanding chemical processes but
also because theories about reaction mechanisms can explain diverse chemical
phenomena in terms of a relatively small number of general principles. It is
this latter capability of mechanistic theory which makes it important as an
organizing device for the subject of organic chemistry as a whole.
In treating mechanisms of the important classes of organic reactions, we
have tried to emphasize the experimental evidence upon which mechanistic
ideas are built and to point out areas of uncertainty and controversy where
more work still needs to be done. In this way we hope to avoid giving the
impression that all organic mechanisms are well understood and completely
agreed upon but instead to convey the idea that the field is a dynamic one, still
very much alive and filled with surprises, excitement, and knotty problems.
The organization of the book is traditional. We have, however, b2en'
selective in our choice of topics in order to be able to devote a significant portion
of the book to the pericyclic reaction theory and its applications and to include
a chapter on photochemistry.
The pericyclic theory is certainly the most important development in
mechanistic organic chemistry in the past ten years. Because it is our belief that