Fracture in structural materials remains a vital consideration in engineering systems, affecting the reliability of machines throughout their lives. Impressive advances in both the theoretical understanding of fracture mechanisms and practical developments that offer possibilities of control have re-shaped the subject over the past four decades. The contributors to this volume, including some of the most prominent researchers in the field, give their long-range perspectives of the research on the fracture of solids and its achievements. The subjects covered in this volume include: statistics...