《统计物理学中的量子场论方法(第3版)》原书为1962年的俄文第1版，是这个领域内的世界上第一本专著和教材，也是早期凝聚态理论中最经典和最权威的著作之一，同时也是中国在20世纪的60—70年代学习凝聚态理论（早期场论方法）的最早和最普及的一本专著和教材。
根据原书1962年的俄文第1版，1963年美国和中国均出版了相应的英译本和中译本（中文译者：郝柏林）。此后，在1965年欧美国家又在原书1962年的俄文第1版和原作者提供的补充和订正材料的基础上，翻译出版了该书第2版的英译本。
中国的郝柏林院士参考了该书以往的几个版本，对其进行重新翻译出版，且将原作者为英译本准备的补充和订正也加了进去。

This book explores the rise of theoretical physics in 19th century Germany. The authors show how the junior second physicist in German universities over time became the theoretical physicist, of equal standing to the experimental physicist. Gustav Kirchhoff, Hermann von Helmholtz, and Max Planck are among the great German theoretical physicists whose work and career are examined in this book.Physics was then the only natural science in which theoretical work developed into a major teaching and research specialty in its own right. Readers will discover how German physicists arrived at a well-defined field of theoretical physics with well understood and generally accepted goals and needs. The authors explain the nature of the work of theoretical physics with many examples, taking care always to locate the research within the workplace.The book is a revised and shortened version of Intellectual Mastery of Nature: Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein, a two-volume work by the same authors. This new edition represents a reformulation of the larger work. It retains what is most important in the original work, while including new material, sharpening discussions, and making the research more accessible to readers. It presents a thorough examination of a seminal era in physics.