This book reviews a number of spectacular advances that have been made in the study of supersymmetric quantum field theories in the last few years. Highlights include exact calculations of Wilson loop expectation values, and highly nontrivial quantitative checks of the long-standing electric-magnetic duality conjectures

The book starts with an introductory article presenting a survey of recent advances, aimed at a wide audience with a background and interest in theoretical physics. The following articles are written for advanced students and researchers in quantum field theory,...