The median US list price of 15 standard physics textbooks is $99 (October 2026). Prices range from $56 for Lancaster and Blundell's Quantum Field Theory for the Gifted Amateur to $279.99 for Goldstein's Classical Mechanics. The mean is $118.60.
Buying four common course texts for the standard path through theoretical physics (Taylor, Griffiths' electrodynamics, Griffiths' quantum mechanics, Peskin and Schroeder) costs $490.99 at list price.
Prices of 15 standard physics textbooks
| Book | Subject | Level | Publisher | US price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goldstein, Poole, Safko, Classical Mechanics (3rd ed.) | Classical mechanics | Graduate | Pearson | $279.99 |
| Peskin and Schroeder, An Introduction to QFT | QFT | Graduate | CRC Press | $189.99* |
| Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics (3rd ed.) | Electrodynamics | Graduate | Wiley | $151.95 |
| Taylor, Classical Mechanics | Classical mechanics | Undergraduate | University Science Books | $149.00* |
| Townsend, A Modern Approach to QM (2nd ed.) | Quantum mechanics | Undergraduate | University Science Books | $131.00* |
| Zee, QFT in a Nutshell (2nd ed.) | QFT | Graduate | Princeton UP | $115.00 |
| Schwartz, QFT and the Standard Model | QFT | Graduate | Cambridge UP | $104.00 |
| Shankar, Principles of QM (2nd ed.) | Quantum mechanics | Advanced undergraduate and graduate | Springer | $99.00* |
| Sakurai and Napolitano, Modern QM (3rd ed.) | Quantum mechanics | Graduate | Cambridge UP | $91.00 |
| Morin, Introduction to Classical Mechanics | Classical mechanics | Undergraduate | Cambridge UP | $88.00 |
| Purcell and Morin, Electricity and Magnetism (3rd ed.) | Electrodynamics | Undergraduate | Cambridge UP | $88.00 |
| Kleppner and Kolenkow, An Introduction to Mechanics (2nd ed.) | Classical mechanics | Undergraduate | Cambridge UP | $84.00 |
| Griffiths and Schroeter, Introduction to QM (3rd ed.) | Quantum mechanics | Undergraduate | Cambridge UP | $80.00 |
| Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics (5th ed.) | Electrodynamics | Undergraduate | Cambridge UP | $72.00 |
| Lancaster and Blundell, QFT for the Gifted Amateur | QFT | Bridge to graduate | Oxford UP | $56.00 |
Publisher US list prices, hardback unless the publisher only sells a paperback (Lancaster and Blundell). * Amazon list price, used where the publisher page showed no US price or was unreachable. Checked 2026-10-21.
Undergraduate vs graduate textbook prices
- Seven undergraduate texts in the table: median $88, mean $98.86.
- Six graduate texts: median $133.48, mean $155.32.
- Shankar (advanced undergraduate and graduate) and Lancaster and Blundell (a bridge text) are left out of this split.
Graduate texts cost about 50% more at the median. Four of the six graduate texts are older than 15 years: Jackson (1998), Peskin and Schroeder (1995), Goldstein (2002) and Zee (2010).
The cost of the standard path through theoretical physics
| Subject | Common course text | List price | No-Nonsense eBook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classical mechanics | Taylor | $149.00 | $34 |
| Electrodynamics | Griffiths | $72.00 | $34 |
| Quantum mechanics | Griffiths and Schroeter | $80.00 | $34 |
| Quantum field theory | Peskin and Schroeder | $189.99 | $34 |
| Total | $490.99 | $136 |
The four No-Nonsense paperbacks together cost $142.
How textbook prices have changed
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks college textbook prices in the Consumer Price Index (series CUUR0000SSEA011, December 2001 = 100). The annual average rose from 104.2 in 2002 to 261.457 in 2025, an increase of 150.9%. Over the same years the all-items CPI rose 79.0%.
Most of that rise happened before 2016. From 2016 to 2025 the textbook index rose 11.6%, against 34.1% for all items, so in real terms textbook prices have fallen since 2016.
How students respond to the prices
- 66% of students in a Fall 2019 survey reported skipping buying assigned course material (U.S. PIRG Education Fund, 2020).
- 53.5% of respondents to the Florida Virtual Campus 2022 survey said they did not purchase a required textbook, down from 64.2% in 2018.
Cheaper options
- Free lecture notes: David Tong (Cambridge) publishes free PDF notes on classical dynamics, electromagnetism and quantum field theory.
- Older editions: for subjects that change slowly, an earlier edition of the same text usually covers the same material.
- Lower-priced books: the four No-Nonsense books cost $34 each as eBooks, and eBook buyers get later editions free.
- Popular-level paperbacks: Susskind's Theoretical Minimum books cost $18.99 and $21.99, with less depth than a textbook.
Method
I took the standard course and reference texts for classical mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics and quantum field theory and recorded the US list price on each publisher's own page on 2026-10-21. Where the publisher page showed no US price or could not be reached, I used Amazon's list price and marked it. Selling prices on Amazon and used prices are often lower than list.
Jakob Schwichtenberg, author of the No-Nonsense books. Related: physics education statistics.