this collection of classic papers in shock compression science makes available not only some of the most important classic papers on shock waves by poisson, rankine, earnshaw, riemann, and hugoniot, which remain important references, but also some pathbreaking papers from the 1940s and 1950s on shocks in solids and fluids by such theorists as bethe, and weyl. although their ideas and results remain of current interest, many of these papers have been hard to find, since the journals in which they were published are not available in many libraries. the editors have also translated papers written in french to make them accessible to a wider audience. this collection is thus not only a valuable historical resource but also a vital reference for those working in the field.