This book lives up to its title and does so in a manner that authors of modern science textbooks should seek to emulate. The book is produced as an affordable paperback and an even more affordable e‐book. It contains 16 chapters, several appendices, and more than 250 high‐quality illustrations. As a bonus, a considerable amount of related material that parallels the book is made freely available from the author's Web site (http://magician.ucsd.edu/~ltauxe), including the companion PmagPy software package, which is used throughout the book for hands‐on problem solving.