Hooke's law - that is, upon thE" assumption of linear elasticity. It was well known that most engineering materials like metals, con­ crde, wood, soil, are not linearly elastic or, are so within limits too narrow to cover tne range of pl'actical intcrest. Nevertheless, almost all routine stress analysis is still based on Hooke T s law be­ cause of its simplicity. In the course of time engineers have become increasingly con­ scious of the importance of the anelastic behavior of many materials, and mathematical formulations have been attempted and applied to practical problems. Outstanding among them are the theories of ide­ ally plastic and of viscoelastic materials. While plastic behavior is essentially nonlinear (piecewise linear at best), viscoelasticity, like elasticity, permits a linear theory. This theory of linear visco­ elasticity is the subject of tbe present book.