This sound introduction to classical and modern control theory concentrates on fundamental concepts. Employing the minimum of mathematical elaboration, it investigates the many applications of control theory to varied and important present-day problems, e.g. economic growth, resource depletion, disease epidemics, exploited population, and rocket trajectories. An original feature is the amount of space devoted to the important and fascinating subject of optimal control. The work is divided into two parts. Part one deals with the control of linear time-continuous systems, using both transfer...