This book begins with relativistic quantum mechanics and some quantum field theory which lay the foundation for the rest of the text. The phenomenology and the physics of the fundamental interactions are emphasized through a detailed discussion of the empirical fundamentals of unified theories of strong, electromagnetic, and weak interactions. The principles of local gauge theories are described both in a heuristic and a geometric framework. The minimal standard model of the fundamental interactions is developed in detail and characteristic applications are worked out. Possible signals of physics beyond that model, notably in the physics of neutrinos are also discussed. Among the applications scattering on nucleons and on nuclei provide salient examples.